The Tennessee Vols got some anticipated excellent news on Friday night when Coosa, Georgia, tight end Sean Brown decided to end the recruiting process and commit.

C O M M I T E D… 🍊 pic.twitter.com/2JPbrQSmZy

— Sean Brown (@SB3_SZN) May 12, 2018

The 6’5″, 245-pound 3-star prospect chose UT over other finalist Auburn. He boasted 16 offers total, including LSU, Kentucky, Virginia Tech, Vanderbilt, Purdue, N.C. State and others. Though the Tigers from the Plains seemed to hold an advantage for a while, Brown visited Knoxville earlier this spring, fell in love with the message Jeremy Pruitt was peddling and knew he wanted to be a Vol.

The rest was just details.

Brown wound up committing to Tennessee and joining Cartersville native Jackson Lowe as the Vols’ duo of tight ends in this year’s class. They’re the top two guys UT went after, and emerging ace recruiter Brian Niedermeyer is responsible for both of those guys. Brown’s offer sheet doesn’t match his pedestrian ranking, as he is currently the No. 957 player nationally according to the 247Sports Composite rankings and the No. 37 tight end.

He’ll join Lowe for a formidable duo that can do a lot of things at the tight end position, a spot that looked problematic from a talent perspective this spring. Though depth isn’t an issue, it’s a matter of finding players who can make an impact in the SEC. Right now, it’s uncertain if anybody can do that.

This spring, walk-on Eli Wolf and redshirt freshman Austin Pope got many of the reps. Freshman Jacob Warren needs to add a lot of weight and show more physicality to be a force in the rotation. The Vols got exceptional news this week when reports surfaced that the nation’s No. 1-ranked JUCO tight end, Dominick Wood-Anderson, qualified and is set to arrive in Knoxville soon. Wood-Anderson chose UT over Alabama and a host of other schools and should vie immediately for playing time, if not starting reps.

But versatility shouldn’t be an issue at the position in the future, especially if Wood-Anderson can give the Vols two solid years and UT can wind up signing Lowe and Brown. Both players are physical prospects who are good blockers, can play in-line and also catch the ball on the perimeter. Neither are burners, but they’re exactly the kind of tight ends that offensive coordinator Tyson Helton wants in his pro-style scheme.

That scheme, a lot of times, calls for two-tight end sets, and Brown and Lowe have a good rapport and should find themselves on the field together a lot in future scenarios.

The Vols swooped into North Georgia to fortify the position, and they zeroed in on those two guys as the primary targets at a major position of need. Brown told VolQuest.com’s Jesse Simonton that running track has kept him in great shape, and UT sees him as an all-around tight end. He went in-depth with Simonton in an interview posted tonight.

The first time Sean Brown (@SB3_SZN) met @CoachJPruitt he knew he found his future head coach. pic.twitter.com/iZ57fZpEm4

— Austin Price (@AustinPriceless) May 12, 2018

Brown knows Pruitt’s style from watching him at Alabama, a team he’s been rooting for. He told GoVols247’s Ryan Callahan that he wanted to be a part of rebuilding the Vols and knows that Pruitt and his staff are going to get it done.

Niedermeyer is flat-out getting it done on the trail. Though he may be UT’s least-known assistant, he’s proving adept at landing prospects. His name is prominently mentioned with the Vols’ two highest-profile targets as well — offensive lineman Darnell Wright and running back/outside linebacker Quavarius Crouch. If he can land one (or both) of those guys, his star will continue to rise.

Brown is his latest big coup. He’s UT’s sixth known commitment in the 2019 class, and his pledge marks the second straight time the Vols beat out Auburn for an important target. Offensive lineman Wanya Morris also had AU as a finalist, and, next week, 4-star receiver Ramel Keyton will choose between the Vols and Tigers. UT feels good about its positioning in that race, too.

The Tigers did beat out UT (and Georgia) for stud outside linebacker Owen Pappoe, but Pruitt and Co. are holding their own against the Plainsmen. Those are the types of battles you need to win to pull down big-time classes. The Vols aren’t there yet, as this class ranks 31st currently and 10th in the SEC, but it’s only beginning.

Brown isn’t going to do a ton to surge UT up the rankings, but that doesn’t matter. He’s a guy this staff believes should be one of the top two tight ends on their big board, and they went out and got both of those. That’s huge.

On film, Brown’s pass-catching abilities don’t flash, which actually isn’t a bad thing considering in all the commitment stories, his coach talks about that part of his game really coming on recently. His big hands should be an attribute on the next level. But what really looks good is his physicality and athleticism, and playing both ways (as most high school kids do) will help him, as will running track. This is really a kid that’s only now beginning to realize his potential, and once he gets into a college program, he can really take off.

Will he be able to come in and help immediately in 2019? That depends on how he develops over the course of the next year. But he has that ability because his body already is in the right shape, and he has the type of frame that can add 15-20 extra pounds with no trouble. He’s a very projectable prospect who can split out or play inside and block. Brown has a high ceiling and should only continue to rise in the rankings.

Every first-year regime is going to experience a recruiting kick from prospects enamored with the “newness” around the program. Jeremy Pruitt nabbing 4-stars J.J. Peterson, Jerome Carvin and Jeremy Banks were prime examples of this.

Say what you want about Pruitt’s early recruiting victories — they mean very little. Every first-year head coach gets a few of those guys. Pruitt will get his fair share of elite recruits as the years roll on as long as the Vols show marked improvement on the field. The long-time assistant has long been known as a dynamic recruiter and relationship-cultivator, and that isn’t going to change.

It’s the lesser-known prospects — especially in these first couple of recruiting cycles — who will tell us a lot about Pruitt’s abilities to recruit, coach and develop.

It was the other way around for Butch Jones. He did fine recruiting and even molding many low-level recruits into serviceable SEC players. But “serviceable” doesn’t win big in an elite conference. Where Jones and his coaches struggled was taking big-time recruits and developing them into big-time SEC players. Those guys simply never got better during Jones’ tenure. The staff wasn’t good enough, the strength & conditioning program failed them, and Jones never truly had enough faith in his players to allow them to make plays with the game on the line; he was too conservative and played too much “by the book” rather than by feel.

Pruitt may wind up like that, but it would be a major change. He’s never done that as an assistant, and there are no signs (as there was on Jones’ resume) that he’ll do it in Knoxville.

So, it’s important that we look at some of the “reaches” that Pruitt takes and how they mature and develop. Are they really reaches, or are Pruitt and his assistants just exceptional evaluators? Are they getting key-fit kids who have the developmental bodies to slide into important roles within the framework of the defensive or offensive schemes? Or are they just warm bodies to fill gaps in the class?

We can’t know the answer to that yet, but we will soon enough. If it’s the former, that’s an exciting thing for Tennessee fans that Pruitt knows what he wants — stars-be-damned — and goes out and gets them. Also, even if he isn’t getting his first or second choices at a position, it’s important for any coach to get kids who fit that role and turn them into playmakers.

That will be the difference in how long it takes Tennessee to get back under Pruitt.

It’s going to be very interesting to see how lightly recruited defensive linemen Kingston Harris and Kurott Garland fit. These guys should give us an idea of how Pruitt and his staff evaluates and develops.

Harris is a 6’3″, 285-pound defensive tackle from famed IMG Academy. That means that basically everybody in the nation saw him play when they were evaluating other prospects, yet didn’t offer. 247Sports thought there were 1,210 players better than him in the cycle. Is Harris a recruiting oversight? Or do Pruitt and Co. see something in him they believe they can shape into an SEC stud? The same, really, goes for Garland, who had offers from Tulane, Coastal Carolina and Eastern Kentucky. The Vols saw him when they were also scouting teammate and Florida State (former UT) receiver commit Jordan Young, and they wound up taking him on National Signing Day.

Young was overlooked, and it’s possible Garland was, too. It’s also possible these kids are major reaches. That’s not a knock on those guys; but the SEC is the best of the best. Maybe these guys are future stars, multi-year starters and important pieces to the rebuild.

Maybe they aren’t.

They’re worth watching if we’re going to see just how good this staff Pruitt put together is. To a lesser degree, John Mincey is a mid-level SEC recruit from Homerville, Georgia, who was recruited by Arkansas and South Carolina. The Vols were thrilled to get him on National Signing Day, but he is far from an elite recruit. Can the coaches turn him into a guy we’ll look back on and call a steal?

This is three defensive linemen — Harris, Garland and Mincey — who could be high-upside players. They have big bodies, projectable frames and attributes this staff believe translate into a 3-4 defense. Some of the guys committed to the prior regime (such as ultimate FSU commit Jamarcus Chatman) were not considered fits. Even though they had a higher ranking, they weren’t the type of players this staff believed it needed. It’s OK to be skeptical, but it’s not like Jones ever had a good idea of what it took to build an SEC winner, so I have no issues with going in a different direction.

The same can be said on the offensive side of the ball, too. Could Tennessee ultimately hang onto former quarterback commitment Adrian Martinez had Pruitt and offensive coordinator Tyson Helton put on the full-court press when Nebraska and Scott Frost came calling? The Vols fought there to keep Martinez in the fold, but how hard? Nobody seemed overly disappointed when he went to the Cornhuskers, and after a strong spring game, it looks like he could be a true freshman starter in the Big Ten. The same goes for dual-threat quarterback and former UT commitment Michael Penix, who this new staff did not want. He signed with Indiana and has a legit chance to start as a true freshman for former UT offensive coordinator Mike DeBord and the Hoosiers in ’18.

Instead, Helton and Pruitt zeroed in on California commitment JT Shrout. It didn’t take long for the pocket passer to visit Knoxville and flip from his home-state Bears to the Vols. This is a kid who threw a ridiculous number of interceptions in high school and was a 3-star prospect. On paper, he doesn’t blow anybody away. But this is what Helton wanted — a piece he believes he can mold into a legitimate dropback SEC passer. The Vols are transitioning away from a dual-threat-oriented, spread offense into a more pro-style scheme, and Shrout definitely fits that.

How will Shrout develop? Will he make us forget Martinez and Penix?

Las Vegas receiver Cedric Tillman is another player like Harris. He played at a national powerhouse in Bishop Gorman, and he had teammates with high-FBS caliber offers, but he wasn’t one of those guys. UT saw his size (6’3″, 205 pounds) and his ball-catching ability and offered him.

So that’s Harris and Garland and Mincey and Shrout and Tillman. I’m not saying these five guys will make or break Pruitt’s tenure at Tennessee — that’s just silly. But they are proverbial “diamonds in the rough” that are, at least at first blush, developmental prospects. What do you do with developmental prospects? You DEVELOP them. They either turn into stars, or they take up a scholarship spot and are urged to transfer at a later date. Maybe Pruitt will recruit over them, and maybe they’ll become cornerstones for a foundation of success.

Watch them; maybe not in 2018, but throughout their careers. They may tell us a lot about Pruitt and his staff.

Tennessee picked up a big commitment on Tuesday from borderline 5-star OL Wanya Morris from Grayson, HS in Georgia.  Morris picked the Vols over fellow finalist Auburn after a back and forth recruitment.  He’s a true offensive tackle and an elite prospect with the kind of size and mobility that the Vols simply do not have at the position outside of Trey Smith, and is simply put a huge win on the recruiting trail for Coach Jeremy Pruitt and Tennessee.

Morris is a foundational piece for the class of 2019, and with 4-star Jackson Lampley already in the fold, the Vols are off to a great start when it comes to having a high-level OL class, which it absolutely has to have. To that end, Tennessee is very much in the thick of it with 5-star Darnell Wright as well as other highly regarded OL like Bryce Benhart and Anthony Bradford  – both of whom have taken spring official visits to Knoxville after previously seeing the campus unofficially, showing how much interest they have in the Vols – among others.

Despite the 2018 offensive line being arguably the biggest question mark on the team, it is notable that looking ahead to the 2019 season there are no seniors at the position.  Therefore, even though the talent that exists on the team is not the kind of top-tier talent that Tennessee needs to win at a high level, there is certainly room and time for OL coach Will Friend to develop it.  Obviously, Trey Smith is a tremendous building block that Pruitt and Friend inherited and upon which to build, and K’rojhn Calbert also appears to have the kind of size and natural ability to be a bigtime SEC talent.  But in a short period of time, Pruitt and Friend added Jerome Carvin (for whom they beat out Alabama, UF, Auburn among others) and Jahmir Johnson (a JUCO All-American with 3 years to play) to the class of 2018.  And now, with Lampley and Morris – and surely more to come – one can see a path to the kind of talented and physically imposing offensive line that Tennessee simply hasn’t had since arguably the Phillip Fulmer era ended.

As much as I wanted to make an awful Boyz II Men reference in that headline, it would have buried the news on just how important 4-star offensive tackle Wanya Morris‘s pledge to Tennessee was on Tuesday.

After all, not only is this the nation’s No. 46 overall player, the seventh-rated offensive tackle and a 6’6″, 293-pound physical specimen at a position of need from a powerhouse program loaded with talent in this and future classes, it also helps flip the narrative on new coach Jeremy Pruitt’s recruiting.

The Vols had a rousing early signing period in the last cycle, but, let’s face it: Pruitt and Co. needed a recruiting win. Tennessee was largely shut out of landing any marquee names other than stud linebacker J.J. Peterson in the late period, mostly going silent following the flip-of-the-calendar all-star games. This recruiting cycle hasn’t started with sterling momentum, either, scarred by Memphis defensive end Bill Norton visiting Knoxville and committing to rival Georgia on the day he returned home.

All the while, though, Pruitt has kept swinging for the fences. And, as my good buddy Dylan wrote earlier this week, it’s setting up to be a marvelous May for Tennessee. It got off to a rousing start on the first day with Morris’s commitment.

HUGE news for #Vols: Top-50 overall prospect Wanya Morris — an offensive tackle from Georgia — commits to Tennessee: https://t.co/yPxQqgYGRV via @RyanCallahan247 pic.twitter.com/CP1455ytF2

— Wes Rucker (@wesrucker247) May 1, 2018

The Grayson High School product out of Loganville, Georgia, had offers from virtually everybody in the nation, and it ultimately came down to Auburn. The topsy-turvy recruitment had its share of ups and downs and momentum swings, but, somehow, Tennessee turned Morris’s opinion in its favor for good with an official visit two weekends ago.

At the time, many recruiting pundits had Morris penciled in to the Tigers on the Plains’ loveliest village, despite UT holding early sway in the race to land his signature. Morris was expected to take his final official visit to Auburn this past weekend, which would have given the Tigers the final chance to convince him. But Morris must have made his mind up in Knoxville last weekend, because he chose not to make that visit.

Now, he says his recruitment is “over” and he’ll sign with Tennessee in December.

As we all know, this is recruiting. These are 17-year-old kids. There is a lot that can happen between now and then, especially considering the 2018 season doesn’t (at least on paper) look like it’s going to be a banner campaign on the field in Rocky Top. Auburn has some nice pieces on its roster and could contend with Alabama (and Mississippi State) in the West. Could that sway Morris’s decision?

It’s at least worth mentioning, but so is the fact that Morris said he’s done. Knoxville is where he wants to be, and while early playing time is obviously a massive factor on his agenda, so are relationships. Both he and his mother love Pruitt and offensive line coach Will Friend, who has a rich history of developing SEC linemen. The Vols have massive holes along the front and need building blocks around which to build their pro-style scheme.

Morris is one of the best early pledges they could have gotten. Now, much of the attention turns toward the nation’s top tackle in Darnell Wright, who loves Tennessee and Alabama and could make a decision before his senior season. Pairing the West Virginia lineman with Morris would be a massive coup, especially considering in-state lineman Jackson Lampley is already firmly in the fold.

Tennessee is still going to swing hard after Morris’s prep teammate and good buddy Owen Pappoe, one of the nation’s top linebackers who also made his choice today. Much like we’ve discussed with Morris, though, these are just verbal, non-binding commitments until they sign on the dotted line, and the first time that can happen is December.

Still, this is a huge early-cycle statement for Pruitt, who is still catching up on relationships in this cycle. He joins 4-star lineman Lampley, 4-star tight end Jackson Lowe, 3-star defensive tackle LeDarrius Cox and JUCO lineman Darrel Middleton as 2019 pledges.

With some players like linebacker Terrell Dawkins, cornerbacks Tyus Fields and Jaydon Hill, receiver Ramel Keyton and others feeling Tennessee right now, the Vols could wind up fleshing their class out with some big names soon. None will be bigger than Morris, who is an incredible piece to a class that’s only going to grow from here on.

This is an indication of the kind of recruiting battles Pruitt won while he was at Alabama. Hopefully, it’ll be one of many he pulls while the head coach at Tennessee.

After a successful recruiting weekend for the Orange & White Game that brought in a slew of high level 2019 and 2020 prospects, Tennessee heads into the month of May with a 2019 class that is relatively small on quantity but impressively high on quality.  In OL Jackson Lampley, TE Jackson Lowe, and DL LeDarrius Cox and DL Darrel Middleton, Tennessee has a group of 2019 commitments for whom they have beaten out SEC powers, and who at the same time represent both Coach Jeremy Pruitt’s commitment to fixing Tennessee in the trenches and also simply recruiting more physically imposing players – the kind of prospects that Tennessee needs to land in order to get back to contending for SEC East and conference championships as quickly as possible.

Depending on the decisions of a handful of players, May could be a month where things significantly heat up on the recruiting trail for the Vols in which the pattern of beating out bigtime programs for elite-level players would continue.  Below is a quick look at prospects who will make May decisions and where the Vols stand:

2019

May 1: OL Wanya Morris – The saga is pretty well-known at this point, with Morris seemingly going back and forth between his finalists Tennessee and Auburn on a daily basis.  As of this writing the Vols have the momentum coming out of his official visit to Knoxville last weekend and subsequently cancelling his previously scheduled trip to the Plains.  He is scheduled to announce his decision on the first day of May along with a handful of his Grayson HS teammates, and right now things look good for the Vols.  This could certainly take some more twists and turns between now and then though, and regardless of his pronouncements (publicly and, apparently, privately) that once he commits he will completely shut it down, it’s hard to believe that the “loser” on May 1 will simply roll over.  The bottom line though is that Morris would be a foundational piece of this class and with Lampley already in the fold and the Vols very much in the thick of it with 5-star Darnell Wright among highly regarded OL like Bryce Benhart, Triston Miller, and others

May 12: TE Sean Brown: Another Tennessee-Auburn battle is brewing for the physical TE prospect from Georgia, and Tennessee would love to add him to Jackson Lowe to form a highly-ranked and potentially instant impact set of TEs.  Brown has been on campus three times in the last month or so including last weekend for the O&W Game and is set to announce in a few weeks.  He could end up visiting Auburn again before then but right now all the money is on the Vols for Brown

May ?: WR Ramel Keyton – Keyton made his sixth trip to campus and his third since Pruitt and Co. came to town this past weekend and immediately after announced that he ready to decide sometime in May. Yet again the Vols are head to head with Auburn, and yet again at this point Tennessee looks to be in good position.  He’s one of the best WRs in the class, and is the kind of big physical pass-catchers that Pruitt loves.  Notably, Keyton hails from the talent-laden Marietta HS in Marietta, GA, also home to Tennessee’s #1 QB prospect in the 2020 class Harrison Bailey as well as fellow 2020 5-star 2020 TE Arik Gilbert (who recently named UT his leader) and 2020 DB Rashard Torrence (who visited for the 3rd time this spring last weekend).  Adding Keyton would further aid the Vols in their pursuit of these other studs

Grad Transfer CB Nick Harvey

A Grad Transfer, Harvey is a former four-star prospect and U.S. Army All-American.  He appeared in all but one game during his first three years at Texas A&M and then started 12 games in 2016, but sat out last season and tearing his ACL during the offseason. He’s already taken official visits to Arizona, Auburn, and South Carolina, and is deciding whether or not to take one more, to either Florida or Oklahoma State, before announcing his decision on May 11. Were the Vols to land him he would be an instant impact addition to the 2018 team, bringing talent and SEC experience to a CB room that sorely lacks both.  Adding him to the top group of CBs made up of Baylen Buchanan, Shawn Shamburger, Alontae Taylor and Marquill Osborne would increase the odds that Coach Terry Fair and Pruitt can cobble together a solid secondary.  It would also reduce the pressure on newcomers to the position (Carlin Fils-aime and Maleik Gray) and to the team (Treveon Flowers, Kenneth Gaines, and Brandon Davis

With coaches on the road and some prospects simply tiring of the process and deciding they are ready for it to be over, there could certainly be others who pop in May.  With a relatively small class – which could get smaller if Pruitt decides to take any further grad transfers in a bid to make his first season as successful as possible – it will be interesting to see how Tennessee’s staff manages the numbers.  So far it’s safe to say they’ve done a great job of taking only impact players and positioning themselves for a good number of others to fill out the remaining spots.