Tennessee football landed its second commitment in the transfer portal Tuesday when LSU offensive tackle Ory Williams committed to the Vols over a number of suitors. Williams joins Kansas State defensive back Qua Moss as the first two transfers to commit to Tennessee out of the portal.
Moss will come in and almost certainly start for Tennessee at STAR from day one, but things aren’t as clear regarding Williams? Will he be a day one starter at Tennessee?
Tennessee has a starting position open after Lance Heard departed for the transfer portal earlier this offseason. But the Vols have a solid starting option already on campus and that’s with Jesse Perry sliding back outside to tackle. Perry played at both right tackle and right guard during his redshirt sophomore season and performed better at offensive tackle than guard.
Williams is very inexperienced. He’s a rising redshirt sophomore played in four games for LSU in 2025, earning a 57.7 PFF grade in 150 total snaps. He came off the bench in games against SE Louisiana and Alabama while starting in LSU’s wins over Arkansas and Western Kentucky. The Arkansas game was his best performance of the season, according to PFF.
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The massive 6-foot-8, 335-pound offensive tackle is also young to football. He played just two years of high school football before arriving at LSU. Williams undoubtedly has a high ceiling with his massive frame and relative inexperience, but how close will he be able to get to that next season?
But Williams chose Tennessee over other SEC and power four opportunities where he would almost certainly be able to start. Moreso, Williams told GoVols247’s Ryan Callahan that Tennessee told him that they want him to come in and start next season.
It appears that plan A is for Williams to start at right tackle opposite of rising sophomore David Sanders. That keeps Jesse Perry at right guard and allows the interior of Tennessee’s offensive line with Perry, Sam Pendleton and Wendell Moe to remain in place entering next season.
Tennessee, of course, still has the flexibility of playing Perry at right tackle if things go poorly for Williams. But the move is still a risk as Perry will now spend his offseason working at guard and not tackle.
The Vols have also been linked to a pair of other transfer offensive linemen with Delaware’s Anwar O’Neal visiting Monday. Tennessee has also been in contact with Oklahoma State’s Dylan Sikorski. It’s not immediately clear how Williams’ commitment impacts those recruitments but it certainly lessens the Vols’ need to land another offensive linemen.
