It’s fair to say that no wide receiver in the SEC is off to a better start than Tennessee football’s Chris Brazzell. As a result, the Vols’ wideout has been added to the Biletnikoff Award Watch List. The award is presented annually to college football’s most outstanding FBS receiver. Any player who catches a pass is eligible for the honor.
Five games into the year, Brazzell has caught 31 passes for 531 yards and seven touchdowns. This is an SEC lead in touchdowns, receiving yards and catches of 10+ yards, in which he has 21. His touchdown count also ties for the FBS high.
For the award, semifinalists, finalists, and the eventual recipient of the Biletnikoff Award are selected by a distinguished committee of more than 600 college football journalists, commentators, announcers, former winners and other notable receivers.
Tennessee has had a number of semifinalists in its program’s history. This includes Joey Kent (1996), Kelley Washington (2001), Robert Meachem (2006) and Jalin Hyatt (2022). The only one to go on to win the award was Hyatt in Josh Heupel’s second year as UT’s head coach.
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So far, Brazzell is off to a better start than Hyatt in his award-winning season. The competition is pretty comparable, too. In both 2022 and 2025, through five games, UT had faced two weaker opponents (’22 had two MAC teams while ’25 had ETSU and UAB), an away-from-home ACC squad, a home SEC game and an away SEC game against a team formerly in the West division.
Through five games in 2022, Hyatt had posted 27 catches for 388 yards and five touchdowns. All three of these marks are worse than what Brazzell has done so far.
However, this doesn’t take into account Haytt’s five-touchdown game against Alabama, which was a big reason he won the award. Brazzell did have a six-reception, 177-yard and three-touchdown game against Georgia this year to match a similar production in a big game.
