Tejhaun Palmer was always considered a physical freak, by both the former and current UAB football coaching staffs, but there is now verifiable proof after being named to The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman’s college football freaks list, arriving at 89th in the annual preseason rankings.

“I’m honored to get that accomplishment,” Palmer said. “I’ve been putting in hard work and it really paid off. The harder you work every day, the better your results. Our coaches preach the same thing every day. The enemy of elite is good. We don’t want to be good, we want to be elite.”

Palmer is the top option in the UAB’s aerial attack, following the departure of former Blazer standout Trea Shropshire, and his example has set a new standard for a massive group of receivers that includes a core of returners, a trio of transfers and an influx of talented freshmen.

“It just shows the type of work that he puts in outside of the mandatory hours,” redshirt sophomore receiver Fred Farrier II said. “You don’t make the ‘Freaks List’ by accident. Having his athleticism, his size, his speed and his strength, it just shows what type of player he is and what type of person he is in raising the bar for how hard he works.”

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Aside from his 6-foot-2, 210-pound frame, Palmer first showcased his fortitude during an eight-month stretch in 2021 — excluding July and August — in which he played 20 games between an eight-game spring season at Snow College, where he helped lead the Badgers to the NJCAA national championship game, and a complete NCAA Division I football season in the fall with the Blazers.

Palmer had 32 receptions for 697 yards and 11 touchdowns at Snow College but finished his initial season on the Southside with only six catches for 72 yards. He followed that up with 20 receptions for 479 yards and two scores last season.

“With him, recovery is the name of the game,” UAB Director of Sports Performance Lyle Henley said. “T-Palm is always trying to figure out the next little edge that clicks him over the top. Once we were able to introduce him to types of recovery through nutrition, sleep, and supplementation, he started really being able to not only do those things but he felt better. Not only can you give the availability to do those things but give him the knowledge to be able to know what he needs day in and day out.”

Knowledge in hand, Palmer is the most consistent performer on the UAB roster and his steady stream of data confirms as much to the strength and conditioning staff. According to the staff, Palmer has a 38-inch vertical leap, an unofficial current 40-yard dash time of 4.47 seconds and routinely clocks in at 22 miles per hour on high-speed acceleration distances with a current high mark of 22.97 on GPS.

“The thing that’s truly freaky about T-Palm is he has repeatability,” Henley said. “He does these things day in and day out, so the way he recovers is ridiculous. He played 20 games that year and even then he was at the top of everything and he’s continued that for this whole career here. When we say he has the most high-speed accelerations, in every single practice he spends the most amount of time running the highest amount of speeds consistently over and over again.”

Taking over a unit with an abundance of talent, wide receivers coach Austin Appleby was faced with the challenge of divvying out reps but a job made easier with Palmer leading the pack. Not only does Palmer’s physical prowess leap off the page, but the professionalism with which he carries himself has inspired the entire group to progress beyond initial expectations.

“All of his testing numbers are off the charts and it’s a testament to the way he works,” Appleby said. “Obviously, our strength staff does an unbelievable job and that kid has put the work in. He’s soft-spoken and very respectful, but when it’s time for him to step in between the white lines, he’s all business. Truly a guy that has built for himself and earned everything, and his best football is still ahead of him.”

Considering the offense is expected to evolve beyond a boom-or-bust assault in the passing game, an opportunity for Palmer to become the fourth UAB player to eclipse 1,000 yards in a season is a real possibility, but allowing opportunities for his peers is a serious responsibility he does not take lightly.

Farrier has impressed throughout spring and fall practice, along with returners TJ Jones, Samario Rudolph and Iverson Hooks, and the trio of transfers — Dazalin Worsham (Auburn), Malachi Holt-Bennett (Indiana) and Brandon Buckhaulter (Ole Miss) — and true freshman Amare Thomas have also made a case for a vital role this year.

“I lead them all the same way, basically encouraging them to work hard every day and leading by example,” Palmer said. “We got new people, like my boy Buck, he knows what to do, and there’s a lot of people that stepped up in the last year. Fred (Farrier) is going to have a big, big role this year. Flip (Rudolph) has always been a hard worker, also Strap (Hooks). It’s a lot of people, I can just keep going. Really, the whole receiving corps is going to show out this season.”