Vols’ Kitselman among PFF’s top returning tight ends in college football

Miles Kitselman was hardly one of Tennessee’s most celebrated additions from the NCAA transfer portal last year. He joined the Vols after spending two years as a lightly used backup tight end at Alabama, and he was simply expected to give Tennessee another veteran option at the position.

But the former junior-college transfer turned out to be a major part of the Vols’ offense. He beat out highly touted Notre Dame transfer Holden Staes to be Tennessee’s starting tight end throughout the 2024 season, and he proved himself as a reliable target in the passing game in addition to being an effective blocker who contributed to the Vols having the SEC’s most productive running game.

According to Pro Football Focus, the numbers reflected how much Kitselman meant to Tennessee last year. He finished the 2024 season as PFF’s seventh-highest graded tight end, and with the NCAA’s waiver for former junior-college transfers allowing him to return to Tennessee for a fifth year of eligibility, he enters the 2025 season as the nation’s fourth-highest graded returning tight end.

“Following a year at the JUCO level and two seasons at Alabama as a backup, Kitselman broke out in his senior year after transferring to Tennessee,” PFF’s Max Chadwick wrote. “He finished 2024 as the seventh-most valuable tight end in the nation, according to PFF’s wins above average metric, and ranks fourth among returners at the position.

“Kitselman was also one of four tight ends in college football with top-25 PFF grades as a receiver and a run blocker. He hasn’t dropped a pass in his college career and is capable of displacing defenders in the run game at 256 pounds.”

The 6-foot-5, 256-pound Kitselman caught just two passes in two seasons at Alabama and played sparingly on offense. But he was a revelation for Tennessee, which added him in January 2024 after Staes — a former four-star prospect from the Atlanta area — had already joined the Vols out of the transfer portal.

Staes again entered the transfer portal and transferred to Indiana after one year at Tennessee, and Kitselman now is returning for an unexpected extra season, giving the Vols some needed experience and certainty at tight end while they deal with turnover at running back, at wide receiver and on the offensive line. Kitselman and redshirt sophomore Ethan Davis, a former Top247 prospect, are in line to be Tennessee’s top tight ends this year.

Kitselman caught 22 passes for 301 yards and four touchdowns while starting all 13 games last season and also scored a rushing touchdown in the Vols’ loss at Georgia in November. He was also a consistent physical presence in helping Tennessee lead the SEC in rushing for a second straight season. His maturity and work ethic made him a welcomed presence in the locker room, too.

In the latest change to the eligibility landscape in college sports, Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia won an injunction in his lawsuit against the NCAA seeking an extra season of eligibility after starting his career in junior college. In response, the NCAA approved a blanket waiver granting an extra year in 2025-26 to athletes who “competed at a non-NCAA school for one or more years” and would have been out of eligibility after the 2024-25 season.

The waiver applies to Kitselman, who spent the 2021 season at Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College before he enrolled at Alabama in 2022 as a late addition to the Crimson Tide’s recruiting class. Based on Tennessee tight ends coach Alec Abeln‘s comments about Kitselman during the fall, it’s safe to assume Tennessee is happy to have him back.

“I think he’s a 10-year NFL guy, to be totally honest with everybody here,” Abeln said in November. “Just the stuff that he does — not just in the box, but in the route — like, I don’t know. He’s everything you want in a guy that you get to coach, and obviously wish I had more time with him, but it’s been a pleasure.”