KNOXVILLE -- The Tennessee football staff released Friday the following changes to the team’s 2007 football roster:
-- Slick Shelley has decided to transfer to the University of Tulsa to gain more playing opportunities.
-- DeShaun Barnes and the University of Tennessee have mutually agreed to terminate/release his National Letter of Intent.
A Fort Smith, Ark., native, Shelley redshirted the 2005 season and did not appear in any games for the Vols in 2006. Barnes signed with the Vols in February out of Lincoln High School in Tallahassee, Fla.
MAYO NAMED TO 2007 BRONKO NAGURSKI WATCH LIST
Tennessee junior linebacker Jerod Mayo has been named by the Football Writers Association of America to the 2007 Bronko Nagurski Trophy watch list.
Mayo, a junior from Hampton, Va., earned second-team All-America honors last year from Rivals.com after finishing among the SEC leaders in both tackles (83) and tackles for loss (12.5). He had double digits in tackles five times in 2006 and was named SEC Defensive Player of the Week after Tennessee wins over California and Alabama.
The award, presented to the nation’s best defensive player each season by the Charlotte Touchdown Club, is named for the former Minnesota All-America lineman and star for the Chicago Bears in the 1930s.
(E-mail Stan Crawley at wscrawley@earthlink.net)