Sounds like he’s earning more playing time.

Tennessee will welcome in one stud true freshman receiver on Saturday afternoon, as Alabama brings Ryan Williams to town. Could they counter with a five-star freshman receiver of their own? It’s possible, according to Josh Heupel.

Mike Matthews, one of the crown jewels of last year’s recruiting class for Tennessee, has officially cracked the wide receiver rotation. Matthews handled 13 snaps against Florida, with most coming early in the game. It’s possible that some of that was due to some lingering injuries to Dont’e Thornton, Bru McCoy and Squirrel White.

Matthews fought through injuries back in camp, which more than likely has affected his playing time early on. Now he appears ready to make an impact, and Heupel says he’s ready to roll against Alabama.

“Played a good amount early in the (Florida) game, and as the game went on, just didn’t have the same number of reps that he did early,” Heupel said. “Mike is somebody that was banged up during the course of training camp and limited a little bit of his development early in the year. We really like what we see out of him. He’s had a great week of preparation. Anticipate him playing in this one.”

Matthews was a five-star prospect, according to On3’s Industry Rankings. He was the 26th ranked prospect in the class of 2024, checking in at 6-1, 180 pounds. Matthews comes out of Lilburn, Georgia.

He’s already found the endzone once this year, catching this ball from Gaston Moore in mop-up duty against Kent State.

While Matthews isn’t expected to see a large role, it will be interesting to see just how much run he gets. None of the Tennessee receivers appeared on their initial Wednesday injury report, but we’re coming off of a game where Thornton saw just four snaps and White was visibly hurting.

Kickoff for Tennessee and Alabama is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday. ABC will have the call.