‘I saw opportunity’ | Tennessee’s Miles Kitselman reflects on transfer to Rocky Top

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - For Tennessee senior Miles Kitselman, coming to the University of Tennessee is all about opportunity. Now, the tight end has the opportunity to help Tennessee in the program’s first playoff game.

“I was not looking for brand,“ the Alabama transfer said. ”Definitely wasn’t looking for money. And so I would just say I saw opportunity here.”

He said when he first got to Rocky Top, it took some warming up to get comfortable with the team, but it didn’t take long.

“Once you all realize like, ‘hey, we’re here for the same thing: win a national championship,‘” he said, “you kind of put those competitive natures to the side. When you all have one goal in mind, you know, you start to become brothers.”

As for Kitselman’s beginnings, he said his first sport of choice wasn’t football.

“Well, the first love was basketball,” he said. “I had to put that to the side.”

From there, he began a career in football that’s lasted years.

“Third grade was football,” he said. “I played running back all the way up until my eight grade year, then they said I was too big and too fat and too slow. So they put me on the line.”

It’s a decision that’s led Kitselman to Columbus, where he and the Vols will faceoff against Ohio State.

Prior to the game, WVLT and Nashville’s WSMV will be hosting the Big Orange Kickoff: Playoff Edition. That’s Friday at 7 p.m. EST in Knoxville; for Nashville viewers, tune in at 6 p.m. CST.