Category Archives: Recruiting

If you’re reading this, you’re well aware of the disaster that has been the start of Tennessee’s season.  At 1-3 with a historic loss to Georgia State, a blown home game against BYU, and (yet another) loss to Florida – this time in blowout fashion – it would be difficult to have envisioned a worse way for the 2019 season to begin.  At the same time, it’s easy to wonder what this start (and forecasted end) to the season will do to Tennessee’s 2020 recruiting class.  What was once a dream of a class that could end up as high as the Top 5 if things broke right now has the looks of one that the staff will have to scratch and claw in order to keep in the Top 15-20.

Job #1 of course is to hold onto Tennessee’s current commitments, a group of (currently) 14 prospects that ranks #15 nationally, #7 in the SEC, and #3 in the SEC East (behind only UGA and then barely UF) in terms of average stars.  Particularly given the struggles of Jarrett Guarantano and the lack of anything resembling a future “sure thing” behind him, keeping QB Harrison Bailey in the class is paramount.  But he’s not the only one, as the rest of the class contains really, really good players as evidenced by the disparity between these rankings and those that consider quantity (where the Vols rank #23 nationally).  So making sure these guys are 100% bought in is the first step. 

From there, there is one thing has definitively changed since the salad days of just a month or so ago when Vol fans had dreams of a breakthrough season and saw their team deep in the mix with the elite of the elite among high school prospects. Landing guys like WR Arik Gilbert; TE Darnell Washington; LB Noah Sewell; WRs Rakim Jarrett, Thaiu Jones Bell and Arian Smith; and OL Marcus Dumervil – let alone more than one of them(!) – has become almost impossible.  If you’re Tennessee in 2019 – not Tennessee in 1999 or even 2009 – you need to have more than bigtime recruiters like Brian Nidermeyer and Tee Martin to beat out the likes of Alabama, Clemson, and Georgia for prospects like that.  You need to be showing progress on the field in terms of wins and losses.  Those recruiting dynamos can get you in the door and even get you unofficial and official visits from elite players, but in order to actually get their signatures when their alternatives are playing for titles you have to at least show that that kind of winning is on the horizon.  And that’s incredibly tough to sell right now.

But here’s the sunny side: For quite a few of Tennessee’s top targets – not the 5-stars but still guys the Vols staff would have LOVED to have gotten commitments from even before this disastrous season started – their other top schools are also having very, very bad seasons.  To wit:

4-star DT Omari Thomas is thought to have Ole Miss at the top of his list along with Tennessee.  Texas A&M is also in the mix and Alabama could be a factor should they choose to be, but the Black Bears seem like the main competition right now.  And Ole Miss is currently 2-2 – with a loss to regional G5 rival Memphis to boot – with realistically only 2-3 potential wins left (Mississippi State, Vandy, and New Mexico State).   Not a very popular choice with Ole Miss fans to begin with, and with a reasonable buyout, Matt Luke seems to be in a very precarious situation.

4-star LB Bryson Eason is down to Tennessee and Arkansas.  The Hogs currently sit at 2-2, fresh off a home loss to San Jose State(!), and while theoretically they have 1-2 potential wins on their schedule (Mississippi State and Western Kentucky) Head Coach Chad Morris hasn’t beaten an FBS foe while at Arkansas.  After going 2-10 and 0-8 in the SEC in his first season, to say Morris’s tenure in Fayetteville looks far less than promising would be an understatement.

4-stars OLB Reggie Grimes and LB/RB Len’neth Whitehead are two players for whom the Vols are battling South Carolina.  And the Cocks are off to a brutal 1-3 – with now 6 consecutive losses to FBS schools – in Will Muschamp’s 4^th season.  They’ve got at best 4 tossup games left against Kentucky, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, and App State.  As bad as things seem in Knoxville right now they are as bad or worse in Columbia as Cock fans expected much more this deep into Muschamp’s tenure.  If he’s not already in danger of losing his job then it seems certain that Muschamp will enter his fifth season on a very hot seat.

OLB Sa’vell Smalls is a 5-star player from the West Coast who, at least before the season, appeared to have the Vols and FSU at the top of his list and seemed like the most likely of 5-star pulls for Tennessee.  With FSU sitting at a record of 2-2 that includes an embarrassing escape against Louisiana Monroe they are no better off than Tennessee is in terms of the season outlook.  The instate Washington Huskies look like a real player here as well, but Smalls has certainly expressed a willingness to leave the state/region as well as a keen interest in Coach Jeremy Pruitt’s reputation on defense, and nether of those should be discounted.  If there’s one 5-star that Niedermeyer should be focused on it’s probably Smalls.

Then there are instate stud Defensive Linemen Tyler Baron and Jay Hardy, two players for whom the Vols are presumed to be big leaders despite the horrific start to the season.  Nailing those two down is absolutely imperative and at least right now still seems likely barring a worst-case kind of finish. 

If someone told Coach Pruitt right now that he could be assured to sign the current commitment list, Baron and Hardy, and then Thomas, Eason, Whitehead, Grimes, and Smalls, one can be 100% sure he’d take that deal before you could even finish the sentence.  Whether he and his staff can make that happen remains to be seen.  However, if they could manage to do that and then finish out the class from the list below* (the majority of which are 4-stars prospects) – let alone convince one or more of the aforementioned 5-stars to sign up – that would be huge for the future of the program.  Even a casual fan knows that the best players on the team are freshman, sophomores, and the JUCOs that Pruitt recruited.  It is of utmost importance that the 2020 class further improve the overall talent in the program.

DL Octavius Oxendine

DL Jasheen Davis

DL Jacolbe Cowan

DL Desmond Evans

LB Kaden Johnson

LB Martavis French

LB Jemari Littlejohn

DB Kendall Dennis

DB Joel Williams

DB Mike Harris

DB Javier Morton

WR Dazalin Worsham

WR Kentron Poitier

RB Michael Drennen

RB Marvin Scott

RB Talaun Patton

OL Chris Morris

OL Tariq Stewart

*List does not assume any head/assistant coaching changes anywhere, including at the struggling programs mentioned above, which would presumably add other prospects to the list

While there is much in terms of opportunity lost due to the Vols poor start to the season – and the ability to add more truly no-brainer elite talent is at the top of that list – there is still a real chance to add high priority players due to similar circumstances at rival schools.  And while this is not a column in which we’ll be making the case for Tennessee to stand by Pruitt regardless of how the rest of the season plays out, there is no question that stability in the form of a coach staying on for his 3^rd season and beyond – missing over the last eleven years – would be ideal.  Obviously the best case scenario is for the Vols to turn things around and salvage the rest of the season, especially while playing tons of young players.  That would go a long way towards righting the recruiting ship for this class.  However, given what’s happening elsewhere there is still a path for Tennessee to end up signing a class that helps the program take a step forward, even if it’s not as big of a step as was once thought possible.

By week’s end, both OLB BJ Ojulari and TE Eric Shaw will have announced their commitments to their respective universities of choice.  Both have been to Tennessee’s campus multiple times, both are rated s 4-stars by 247 Sports (Ojulari at #184 overall – and also a 4-star on Rivals, Shaw at #301 overall), and both have nice offer lists.  They’re both very good prospects who will play their college football in the SEC, the best conference in college football bar none.

Here’s where they differ: Tennessee has gone all-in on Ojulari, as have LSU, Auburn, Florida and others, whereas in the end Shaw wasn’t a take for at least the Vols if not also instate Auburn. So today Shaw is going to pick South Carolina, a program that Tennessee hasn’t beaten since 2015 and one that is a roadblock for Tennessee in between where it is and where it wants to be: back at the top of the SEC East and the entire conference.  In contrast, the Vols are in a dogfight right down to the end for Ojulari, who if he doesn’t pick Tennessee will choose either LSU or Auburn, two programs who’ve been winning at a high level for a decade-plus.  As the rankings difference and more importantly level of schools willing to take them suggest, Ojulari is considered to be an “elite adjacent” prospect – he’s not a take for instate UGA right now – while Shaw is considered to be a solid player whose ceiling and floor are both lower.  Ojulari is a physical freak who’s not only added weight to his 6-3, 225 pound frame but also added new dimensions to his pass-rushing skill-set this spring and summer to where he’s no longer strictly a speed rusher.  He won DL MVP at the Rivals 3 Stripe Camp in Atlanta, showed out at The Opening in Atlanta, and then most impressively was named to the “Dream Team” at the Opening Finals against many of the best players in the country.  The Vols are looking for at least one bigtime pass-rushing OLB and would love to pair Ojulari with Reggie Grimes from the Midstate and/or West Coast product Sav’ell Smalls to give them one of the best position groups in the country.  Ojulari would also combine with QB Harrison Bailey give the Vols two Marietta HS studs in the class of 2020 to go with WR Ramel Keyton from last year’s class, giving Tennessee yet another tie to their teammate and 5-star stud WR/TE Arik Gilbert.  That all remains to be seen of course pending Ojulari’s choice on Friday.

One could make the case that rather than try and go head to head with the Georgias and Alabamas and LSUs and Auburns for top-end recruits – where the Vols are going to lose more than they win at least for now – they should take the slow and steady approach to program building.  That is, recruit against the likes of South Carolina, Missouri, Mississippi State, etc. – programs in the middle of the SEC to whom Tennessee is looking up at the moment.  As we’ve discussed, that’s very much not the approach that Jeremy Pruitt is taking in the least.  In fact, as illustrated very starkly by these two recruitments, Pruitt is looking to just skip over the programs that he (and Vol fans) feel have no business being slotted above Tennessee and zoom straight back to competing against the aforementioned programs at the top of the SEC.  Whether that is ultimately successful or not is to be determined, but they’ve already got more than a handful of no-doubt bluechippers in this class and realistically are squarely in the mix for, frankly, a whole lot more after landing a Top 10 class of 2019.  If Pruitt is in fact successful with his strategy he’ll at the very least raise the floor for the program, as Tennessee will quickly have way more talent than the middle of the pack programs, enabling the Vols to go back to beating those teams regularly strictly on talent alone.  At the same time, Pruitt will have Tennessee at least approximating the talent of the elite SEC programs, narrowing the gap such that outcoaching and getting a break here and there will enable Tennessee to actually beat them instead of just coming close as it has for the better part of the last ten years.

With a roster that has been drastically improved since Coach Jeremy Pruitt took over but still has a ways to go in order for Tennessee to be a true SEC contender, there realistically isn’t one position that can reasonably be considered in strong shape top to bottom.  There are certainly more blue chip players on the roster than there have been in a long time, and there is also hope that Pruitt and his very well-regarded staff can get step-up performances from a number of former 3-star recruits who were signed by the former regime.  But no matter how you cut it, there are needs at every position.  However, there are a finite number of scholarships in a given cycle, and staffs inevitably have to make concessions from one position to another as they put each class together. 

That said, projected numbers at each position in a class can fluctuate depending on a number of factors, most importantly of course the number and talent of the current and future players on the roster.  Specifically at Cornerback for Tennessee, three developments in camp so far have the potential to influence what Tennessee seeks to do at the position in the class of 2020:

• After two weeks of camp and one major scrimmage, one name has been prominently and consistently mentioned among the breakout players – freshman and veterans alike – so far this fall: CB Warren Burrell.  Burrell was an even-at-the-time obviously underrated (by recruiting sites) prospects who chose the Vols over Florida, among others, and was an early enrollee who showed playmaking ability in the spring.  At over 6’0 and with long arms and a nose for the ball to go with the kind of attitude needed to be successful at the position, Burrell has taken his strong spring performance and run with it.  After receiving rare praise from Pruitt, Burrell by all accounts played most of Sunday night’s scrimmage with the starters at CB opposite Bryce Thompson and is at worst going to be the third CB in the rotation when the Vols start the season in less than three weeks, meaning the three top CBs will all be either sophomores or freshman.  Both of the other class of 2019 prospects signed to be CBs – Tyus Fields and Kenny Solomon – have also had their moments early in camp, showing the tenacity and speed/length they are known for, respectively

• Tennessee’s only projected contributor in the secondary who is a Senior, Baylen Buchanan, has been injured since the spring and has not yet practiced.  At this point, though details of his injury are very scarce, it wouldn’t be surprising for him to take a medical redshirt year in 2019 and come back for the 2020 season.  If that happens, it would give the Vols another experienced CB in 2020 that they didn’t anticipate having

• Jerrod Means, a late take in the class of 2019 as a WR, was moved to CB before the start of camp and has already shown flashes of real potential.  At 6’2 and around 215 pounds, Means has the length that is almost a prerequisite for a Jeremy Pruitt CB prospect.  He’s also a kid who ran a 4.4 40 and produced a 39-inch vertical at a Tennessee camp last summer, so his athletic ability is borderline elite for that size.  Everyone knows that Pruitt loves DBs who played both on both sides of the ball as that likely means they have ball skills that translate well to the secondary, and Means also played Safety in high school.  While it remains to be seen whether he sticks at CB and then becomes a good one, he’s got everything you’re looking for at the position and his move means the Vols added 4 true CBs in the class of 2019

Tennessee already has two CB commitments in the 2020 class in early enrollee Art Green – the nation’s #2 overall JUCO player – and Lovie Jenkins.  Jenkins is almost a carbon copy of Burrell in terms of size and length and chose the Vols over a heavy pursuit from Notre Dame as well as offers from Miami, Missouri, and many others.  Do the Vols need another CB in this class?  Maybe not, though it’s unlikely they’d turn down any of their top targets still on the board – namely Joel Williams (announcing in September,  leaning towards Bama) and Kendal Dennis (Vols in Top 2 with Auburn, UF and Miami trying hard, could announce in August) –  if they wanted in now.  But as things change during the season and the December signing day approaches, the Tennessee staff could certainly decide that the 3^rd CB spot is needed more elsewhere, and given the developments above that wouldn’t be surprising in the least.  It’s a good problem for them to have to work through and a sign of the ever-improving roster as well as Pruitt and his staff’s evaluation acumen.

With the news that former 5-star OLB Brenton Cox has decided to transfer (or, if you believe Georgia homers, has been dismissed) from UGA the logical question is of course where will he end up.  He’ll obvious be heavily coveted, assuming he doesn’t have serious skeletons in his closet, as he’s not only a former bluechip recruit but also comes with a full year of playing experience at the highest level of college football.  Last year he played in 13 games for the Dawgs, making 20 tackles including two tackles for loss and one sack.  He also started the Sugar Bowl and has 6 tackles in UGA’s loss to Texas. 

Cox was ranked as the #23 overall player in the 2018 class by the 247 Sports Composite and at 6’4 245 with elite athleticism is exactly what Pruitt and the Vols are looking for in an OLB.  While they are absolutely in the mix for elite edge prospects like BJ Ojulari, Reggie Grimes, and Savell Smalls in the 2020 class, to date they have not succeeded in bringing in a prospect of Cox’s caliber at the position and reasonably believe that it’s a major missing piece to get the Tennessee defense to another level.  Again assuming the reasons for his leaving UGA aren’t of the violent/felonious nature, the Vols should be all-in on trying to land him. 

The good news is that Tennessee has a major tie with Cox, as Pruitt was Alabama’s lead recruiter for him when he was their Defensive Coordinator.  And while he eventually signed with UGA after decommitting from Ohio State, Pruitt got Cox to take an official visit to Alabama in early December right before getting the Tennessee head coaching job and the Tide were thought to be his leader until Pruitt indeed left.  Given Pruitt’s reputation as a recruiter whose biggest strength is relationship building, one can assume that he and Cox had formed a pretty strong bond considering where Pruitt had gotten the Tide in that recruitment.  It’s also fair to assume that while current Tennessee ILB Coach Kevin Sherrer wasn’t Cox’s lead recruiter while at UGA that he and Cox are also very familiar with one another. OSU could end being a player given Cox’s prior status as a Buckeye commitment, but with Urban Meyer having departed Columbus they might be less of a factor. 

Either way, the expectation should be that every national power at least kicks the tires to gauge both the issues surrounding Cox’s departure and then his interest.  From there it will either be a quick decision – as some of these things end up being – or  knock down drag out fight for an immediate impact player.  Tennessee should be a factor here un the latter scenario if it wants to be.  Should they land Cox that would go a LONG way towards addressing one of the biggest needs in the 2020 class and he would be penciled in as an instant starter next season.  Stay tuned…

While the 2019 OL class was built around 5-star OTs Wanya Morris and Darnell Wright, the Thursday commitment of James Robinson – to go with earlier commitments Javontez Spraggins and Cooper Mays – gives Tennessee an outstanding threesome of interior roadgraders around whom they are building this class to complement last year’s OT haul.   While Mays appears to be pegged for Center, both Robinson and Spraggins look like they can play both Guard positions and Robinson even appears to have at least some potential to kick out to Right Tackle.  At least at first, however, he’ll likely be paired on the inside with the aforementioned classmates.  All three are well known for their nasty dispositions and bring the size to back up the attitudes. 

Robinson likely caps off Tennessee’s interior OL class as long as they can hold onto Spraggins, whose recruiting is still in the midst of blowing up, especially since the class of 2019 also featured two interior OL in Jackson Lampley and Chris Akporoghene.  Therefore OL Coach Will Friend and the rest of the staff will now turn their focus to much needed OTs.  Tackles are always a hot commodity every cycle, but for the Vols their an even bigger need despite last year’s stud tandem because the roster is still thin there.  Top options there include the following:

Chris Morris is currently in a heated battle the Vols and  Texas A&M, with Tennessee probably trailing the Aggies at this point.  He took his OV to Knoxville for their Cookout recruiting event in late June before the Dead Period began, then visited College Station unofficially after the Dead Period ended and has been there quite a few times.  Tennessee will undoubtedly need to get him back to campus, ideally for a game and then again for another unofficial in December, since A&M still has their OV available

Marcus Dumervil spent 3 days in Knoxville in mid-June after having OV’d to both LSU and OU in the spring.  He took an UV to instate UF when the Dead Period ended last weekend and the Gators have made a move there.  He does have ties to Vols via Josh Palmer and Kivon Bennett from St Thomas Aquinas HS.  This is going to be a bigtime battle but the Vols are definitely in play here and look like a likely OV destination for him in the fall

JUCOS Tariq Stewart and Antwan Reed have ties to Vol staffer Joe Osovet from his days as the former head coach at their Junior College.  Stewart has an offer from Maryland after earning a UT offer when he and Reed camped in June.  Reed was a Penn State commitment before academic concerns caused him to sign with Western Michigan before ultimately heading to JUCO

Tyson Wannamaker is a longtime South Carolina commitment with a tie to Chris Rumph via a longtime relationship with Tyson’s father.  He visited the Vols for their Cookout event in late June before the Dead Period began and Tennessee continues to be in contact with him and the family.  That one is likely an uphill battle for the Palmetto State native and longtime Cocks commitment, but the Vols will look to hang around and get him back to campus for an OV

In our last piece we looked at the 5 and 4-stars on the offensive side of Tennessee’s roster and wondered what the Vols’ offense would look like in 2019 if the most highly recruited players on the team – from seniors to true freshman – play up to their rankings this season.

Acknowledging that Tennessee not have enough bluechip talent, there is some on both sides of the ball.  So what would happen if when camp starts on Friday Strength & Conditioning Coach Fitzgerald has worked wonders and then Pruitt and his staff can get all of his blue-chip talent to play up to those past rankings?  Before we even get to former 3-stars being coached up and playing beyond those rankings, if the Vols can get its true top-end talent to play like it things could look much different this fall.  As an aside, both the dearth of top-end talent that existed on the roster when Coach Prutt took over as well as how quickly he’s added a good amount of bluechippers is striking when you look at it from this angle.

Below, by position, are former 5-and high 4-stars on Tennessee’s 2019 defensive roster:

DL

5-star Aubrey Solomon

4-stars Greg Emerson, Emmit Gooden, Savion Williams

Assuming Solomon gets his transfer waiver, he and Gooden and Williams are quite possibly the starting DL.  That’s a legit SEC DL – each bluechippers as recruits and each with the kind of size and talent necessary to win the line of scrimmage more often than not. Emerson is coming off RS season after a gruesome injury cost him his senior high school season but he’s now almost 2 years removed and likely is in the best shape of his life.  He’s not currently being counted by most observers as even part of the 2^nd wave of the DL rotation, but what if he takes a leap and emerges as one of, say, the Top 5 DL?  All of the sudden Tennessee’s DL goes from being arguably the biggest question mark on the team to a real strength.

LB

5-stars JJ Peterson, Quarvaris Crouch

4-stars Daniel Bituli, Darrell Taylor, Will Ignot, Jordan Allen, Henry To’oto’to, Roman Harrison

The position with the most bluechip talent on the entire roster, the issue of course is that three of them are true freshman and one is a RSFr.  However, this is a spot where guys playing up to their billing – both off the edge as well as ILB – would be just huge.  A pass-rushing group led by Taylor, Crouch, Allen and Harrison playing like truly elite players, complemented by a an ILB wrecking crew of Bituli, Ignot, To’oto’to, and Peterson (who could also play some at OLB) would not only cause problems for offenses in both the passing and running games but also give DC Derrick Ansley tons of options and flexibility. 

DB

5-stars Nigel Warrior

4-stars Alontae Taylor, Bryce Thompson, Jaylen McCullough, Tyus Fields, Deangelo Gibbs

Another position where the majority of the elite talent on the roster skews incredibly young, the secondary will likely feature at least three former 5 and 4-stars among the five starters.  If Gibbs is eligible he’s instantly vying for a starting spot at Nickel, and either way true freshman McCullough will be in the mix there.  If the light turns on and Warrior takes a 5-star leap while both Taylor and Thompson make a big jump in their sophomore season, the secondary could end up being the #1 strength of the team.

As you can see, while there isn’t enough elite talent on the roster – yet – there is perhaps more than one might think on both sides of the ball.  What Tennessee fans are hoping is that Coach Pruitt, Coach Chaney and Coach Ansley, along with the rest of one of the highest paid staffs in the country, can unlock that potential.  If so, and of course if they can also get some 3-stars to play up a level at the same time, the program will make the kind of massive improvement in Year 2 that both fans and recruits are looking for.

Before any discussion of Tennessee’s 2019 roster and season outlook can go anywhere, it must be acknowledged that the team does not have enough talent.  It doesn’t have enough talent to realistically compete for an SEC East championship; it likely doesn’t have enough talent to win more than 8 games; and it doesn’t even have enough talent to feel that good about beating all of the other SEC non-contenders on the schedule, including Missouri, Mississippi State, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Vanderbilt.  That’s just where the program is right now and will be unti Coach Jeremy Pruitt adds another couple (1-2?)  of recruiting classes.  But…

What if the highest ranked and most highly recruited players on the team – from seniors to true freshman – play up to their rankings this season?  Because while Tennessee not have enough high 5-and-high-4-stars, and is still lacking high quality depth up and down the roster, there are still quite a few former blue-chip recruits on campus in Knoxville.  So what would happen if when camp starts on Friday Strength & Conditioning Coach Fitzgerald has worked wonders and then Pruitt and his staff can get all of his blue-chip talent to play up to those past rankings?  Before we  even get to former 3-stars being coached up and playing beyond those rankings, if the Vols can get its true top-end talent to play like it things could look much different this fall.

Below, by position, are former 5-and high 4-stars on Tennessee’s 2019 offensive roster:

QB

Jarrett Guarantano

There are differing opinions on JG, but regardless of how one feels about the Vols’ signal caller it’s clear he’s got more room to grow in order to live up to his billing as one of the very top high school QBs in the country. If he does that it might mean more than any other player on the list, as it goes without saying that top end QB play can take any team to another level

OL

5-stars Trey Smith, Wanya Morris, Darnell Wright

4-stars Brandon Kennedy, Jerome Carvin, Ryan Johnson, Jackon Lampley With Trey coming back from injury he’ll almost assuredly pair with Morris on the left side, and Kennedy is locked in as the starting Center.  Wright will be thrust into a battle at RT, while Carvin and Johnson are top contenders for the RG position and will be firmly in the rotation no matter who wins the starting job.  So Tennessee could potentially have 3 5-stars and 2 4-stars starting on its OL, with another 4-star as the top backup two true freshman OL– ignoring the potential perils of starting one let alone two freshman OL, that’s really strong.  And if those six in particular play like 5 and 4-stars, look out.  Ideally Lampley will redshirt, but even having the luxury to do so is a far cry from the very recent state of Tennessee’s OL. 

RB

4-stars Ty Chandler, Eric Gray, Carlin Fils-aime

That’s your likely starter and 3^rd back in a 5-RB rotation in Chandler and Gray, with “CFA” being a potential gadget player in new OC Jim Chaney’s creative offensive system.  If Chandler and Gray can become bigtime Swiss Army Knife weapons all over the field and Chaney can optimize CFA’s very solid speed/power combination then the Vols will have an incredibly dynamic backfield.

WR

4-stars Marquez Callaway, Tyler Byrd, Ramel Keyton

One could strongly argue that Callaway has lived up to the ranking, but going back to the 2017 opener against Georgia Tech where he simply dominated, what if he does that every week?  What if Tyler Byrd has the lightbulb come on and looks like the borderline 5-star he appeared to be in the US Army All American Game? Keyton has an opportunity to break into the rotation depending on how many WRs Tee Martin wants to play, but what if he’s taken a huge step this summer in the weight room and has a Justyn Ross/Jaylen Waddle type freshman year?

TE

4-stars Dominick Wood-Anderson, Jackson Lowe

There are very big expectations for “DWA” coming into the season, as the former #1 JUCO in the country, for whom Tennessee beat out Alabama straight up, heads into his final college season.  He’s got elite size and speed, can block at the point of attack, and has good hands.  But he wasn’t the gamechanger needed last season – what if he is in 2019?  What if he becomes an All-American and a force at the position, both stretching the field and dominating in the red zone while being a third-down conversion machine?  Lowe is a big kid who had a nice spring as an early enrollee and has a chance to be the #2 TE.  If he is an immediate contributor and can be a dominant inline blocker in two-TE sets with DWA the Vols will have a lot of flexibility in terms of sets no matter the down and distance.

Especially at the incredibly important positions of Quarterback and Offensive Line, the Vols have enough bluechippers that if Coach Pruitt, Coach Chaney and the rest of the offensive staff can get 5 and 4-star performances from them both the floor and the ceiling for the 2019 Tennessee season are raised significantly.   That’s a big if, but not beyond the realm of possibility given the developmental history of the staff.  We’ll next take a look at the defensive side of the ball where Tennessee also has some real yet untapped talent.

Tennessee picked up a bigtime commitment at its end of July pool party recruiting event on Saturday when WR Jalin Hyatt pledged to the Vols.  The former Virginia Tech commitment – a high school teammate and very close friend of current Vol stud CB Bryce Thompson – is the first pure WR commitment of the class for Tennessee, pairing with ATHs and potential WR commitments Darion Williamson and Jimmy Calloway.

Hyatt brings a number of things to the table that Coach Jeremy Pruitt covets in a prospect.  For one, he’s a certified winner, coming off his third straight state title at Dutch Fork HS in South Carolina’s 5A classification, and is regarded as a leader in that program.  Secondly, he’s a track athlete with blazing speed, something Pruitt is well known for targeting. In just the third track meet of his career this past March Hyatt set a new Dutch Fork record in the 200 meter dash, recording a Top 10 national laser-timed 21.33.  But that speed isn’t simply limited to the track or empty calorie measurables – Hyatt’s functional athleticism is on full display both in his high school tape as well as this spring as showed out at multiple events.  At The Opening in Charlotte he not only ran a 4.31 40 and won the camp’s fastest man contest but also shined in the skills portion and earned himself a 4-star rating by 247 Sports. He’s known for his great hands and shows impressive route running ability – especially or a guy who could do nothing but be a vertical threat and still be a real weapon – as well as the ability to high point the ball.  At over 6’0 and with a wiry frame, Hyatt is a true WR who just happens to have elite speed and in Tennessee’s Strength & Conditioning program has the kind of size/speed/ability combo as a rising high school senior to project as a potentially elite SEC WR. 

Hyatt also represents a recruiting win over the likes of not just Virginia Tech but also Michigan, Oregon, and Miami among others.  At the same time, the Vols now have two bigtime prospects from a powerhouse program in Will Muschamp’s backyard, which is always a positive.  Hyatt gives Tee Martin and Jim Chaney a true blazer in the class around which they can build the 2020 WR corps as they figure out where Williamson and Calloway fit and also continue to chase guys like Rakim Jarrett, Thaiu Jones-Bell, and a handful of other targets. 

Tennessee now has 13 commitments in the 2020 class and, particularly with how its positioned itself with a good number of highly recruited and rated instate prospects, has a chance to sign a Top 10 class come December and February.

As we move towards the final June weekend before a month-long dead period, things certainly have changed a lot since we previewed a consequential month for Tennessee’s 2020 class.  So far during June the Vols have picked up three commitments – running the total to nine – from OL Javontez Spraggins, his high school teammate S Antonio Johnson, and CB Lovie Jenkins.  Tennessee also hosted an incredibly large number of high level prospects during the first half of the month – “takes,” if you will – and expanded its overall board in an impressive fashion.  The month of June has seen two themes in Tennessee’s recruiting strategy under Coach Jeremy Pruitt that were at least slightly evident from the moment he took the job in January 2018: 1) A very high degree of faith in his and his staff’s own evaluations, regardless of ranking, combined with 2) A recognition of the necessity of and improving success in competing with the absolute best of the best for blue chip talent.

As evidence of the first theme, while Johnson is a 4-star with multiple high level offers, Spraggins, earlier commitment WR Jimmy Calloway, and to a slightly lesser extent Jenkins (who does boast more than 40 offers, including some from programs like the local Miami Hurricanes), are guys who the Tennessee staff is higher on, based on their own evaluations, than the rankings services and to a lesser extent other power programs.  Like the 2019 class, in which signees like Roman Harrison, Chris Akporoghene, Jerrod Means, Elijah Simmons, and Kenny Solomon earned Tennessee offers at least partially based on their respective camp performances, Pruitt and his staff are clearly comfortable and confident in their ability to identify players who they think can win SEC and National titles and fit into their systems.  Whether that comes to fruition or not remains to be seen.  However, when some of the aforementioned guys end up earning either/both of ranking upgrades (e.g., Harrison ending up a 4-star) and offers from other major programs (e.g., both Texas and Michigan and Florida State trying to get Akporoghene to take official visits) that is a compelling positive sign.

When it comes to going head to head with the nation’s current dominant programs, Pruitt served notice that this would be his strategy from his opening press conference, and backed his words up with action immediately in his efforts to build his first, stub class.  While he was ultimately unsuccessful in going after 5-star CBs Olaijah Griffin and Isaac Stuart-Taylor – both of whom signed with USC – Pruitt did beat out the likes of Clemson for Treveon Flowers and Alabama for Dominic Wood-Anderson and JJ Peterson.  The 2019 class featured a heavy dose of wins like that, and the 2020 cycle is an acceleration of the success of that strategy. 

The list below includes players for whom Tennessee is under heavy consideration for (with Vol commitments in bold and flip candidates in italics) for whom they are going head to head with powers like Clemson, Alabama, Ohio State and (hate to say it) Georgia, along with bigtime national programs like USC, Miami, Texas, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon, Florida, Auburn, Texas A&M and the like:

QB Harrison Bailey

QB Haynes King

TE Arik Gilbert

TE Darnell Washington

TE Eric Shaw

ATH Damarcus Beckwith

OL Marcus Dumervil

OL Chris Morris

OL Cooper Mays

OL James Robinson

OL Xavier Hill

OL Deandre Buford

WR Arian Smith

WR Rakim Jarrett

WR Thaiu Jones-Bell

WR Javon Baker

WR JJ Evans

WR EJ Williams

RB TY Jordan

RB Tank Bigsby

RB Tee Hodge

RB Caziah Holmes

DL Dominic Bailey

DL Omari Thomas

DL Justin Rogers

DL Trevonn Rybka

DL Darrion Henry

DL Tyler Baron

DL Jay Hardy

DL Deonte Craig

DL Noah Sewell

LB Phillip Webb

LB Kourt Williams

LB Len’neth Whitehead

LB Reggie Grimes

LB De’rickey Wright

LB Morven Joseph

LB Romello Height

S Keshawn Lawrence

S Antonio Johnson

CB Art Green

CB Mike Harris

CB Kendal Dennis

CB/S Mordecai McDaniel

CB Joel Williams

CB Kitan Crawford

That’s obviously an incredibly long list of players to be in on that are also legitimately being pursued by the kind of programs that Tennessee aspires to get back to the level of, and is indicative of not just the cachet that the program still has nationwide but also the type of recruiting staff that Pruitt has put together.  The additions of well-known stud recruiters like Tee Martin, Derrick Ansley, and Jim Chaney (QBs, especially) to an already high-level existing staff and head coach is clearly paying immediate dividends.  Pruitt has expanded the reach of the program to Texas and California while also delving back into formerly profitable but recently ignored territory like North Carolina, all the while keeping a strong focus instate as well as regionally in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama.  Going after these kinds of players will more often than not end in failure, as recruiting is a zero sum game.  But doing so at the level and volume that Tennessee is currently in the 2020 class – especially with the kind of staff it has – while supplementing with its own evaluations – is the only winning strategy when the goal is to compete for championships.  That’s a simple fact that Pruitt clearly gets and is executing on.

The Vols will look to close out the month with another big visit weekend, hosting multiple highly sought after prospects for a cookout in Knoxville.  As of mid-week, Tennessee is expecting to have at a few important official visitors: WR (and soft LSU commit) Rakim Jarrett, RB Caziah Holmes DE/TE Blayne Toll, and OL Richie Leonard, while the unofficial guest list includes QB commitment Harrison Bailey, OLB BJ Ojulari, ILB Romello Height, and RB Tee Hodge (back for a second weekend in a row).  Potential visitors who the Vols are working hard to get back to campus are TE Arik Gilbert, DT Octavius Oxendine, WR (and AU commit) JJ Evans, CB Janari Dean, and frequent local visitors OL Cooper Mays and DE Tyler Baron.  Others of course are likely to join the list for what could be a bigtime weekend and a punctuation mark on what has already been a very profitable month for Tennessee recruiting and what could turn out to be much moreso in the coming weeks.

Something else to watch for Vol coaches and fan will be Alabama’s simultaneous cookout in Tuscaloosa on Friday. Several top Vol targets are expected to attend, including WR EJ Williams, OL Xavier Hill, OL James Robinson, OL Chris Morris, and DB Joel Williams.