Tennessee wide receiver Jalin Hyatt sat down at the Super Bowl with FanSided’s Matt Verderame to talk time with the Vols, the NFL Draft and more.
Once we get to the time of the Super Bowl, 30 other NFL teams are looking toward the offseason with free agency and the NFL Draft looming large. And one player that plenty of teams will be eyeing in the draft will be Tennessee Volunteers wide receiver Jalin Hyatt.
Hyatt was present at Super Bowl 57 media days representing Hyatt hotels, who he signed an NIL deal with in 2022 during his breakout junior season and helped him and his teammates, in particular, with the accommodations during bowl season with the team playing in Miami for the Orange Bowl.
And as he was in Glendale for Super Bowl 57, he sat down with FanSided NFL insider Matt Verderame on Stacking the Box to cover his time at Tennessee, the draft process, and much more.
Verderame brought up one of the signature moments for Hyatt and the Vols, knocking off then-No. 3 Alabama in Knoxville. He asked if that was the receiver’s finest moment at Tennessee, and he agreed it was. And his reasons speak volumes about him and the program.
“I would definitely say it was, just because, College GameDay was there, the hype was there behind the game. When you’re there, you see the stadium, you see the sold-out crowd,” Hyatt said. “Obviously, what we did in that game, it was just remarkable — something that I’ll never forget. The best thing about it was doing it with my teammates. That was the biggest thing, the guys, we worked in the offseason, this is the moment we do it for. Just doing it with that group of guys, it was a blessing for sure.”
Jalin Hyatt says upsetting Alabama was his finest moment at Tennessee
Hyatt may be quick to credit his teammates, but it was the wide receiver who tore the Alabama defense apart as he caught six passes for 207 yards and an incredible five touchdowns. In that remarkable performance (and in virtually every other Tennessee game), Hyatt’s speed certainly stood out.
Routinely running past defenders and catching deep balls from Hendon Hooker, Hyatt made even fast defensive backs look slow. And that’s something he’s looking to do at the forthcoming NFL Combine as well. When asked what he was looking to accomplish at the Combine, Hyatt revealed his lofty goal for the ever-important 40-yard dash.
“I want to run a 4.29,” Hyatt said. “That’s my goal: I want to run a 4.29. Just want to take over the Combine. How I took over the season, I want to do the same thing at the Combine.”
Hyatt did admit that, if he were to run right now, his time would probably be in the low-4.3s. That’s still nothing to scoff at, but it’s not the type of numbers he’s looking for on the stopwatch when he runs the 40-yard dash.
You can watch the full interview with Jalin Hyatt below:
Early projections for Hyatt have him going anywhere from the mid-first-round to the bottom part of the second round. Either way, he figures to be an early pick come late April. If he reaches his goal and hits that 4.29 at the Combine, though, we could see his projections really start to shoot up.
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