Tennessee Recruiting: Vols Get Big Puzzle Piece With Commitment from QB Brian Maurer

In a cycle where there aren’t a ton of highly rated quarterbacks, the Tennessee Volunteers and their first-year coaching staff wanted to see several work out before slinging offers. Last week, 3-star signal-caller Brian Maurer of Ocala, Florida, traveled to Knoxville to throw for the staff.

Both sides liked what they saw.

Wednesday morning, the West Port HS quarterback committed to the Vols, choosing UT over Ohio State, West Virginia, Central Florida and others.

After gaining the offer from Tennessee, Maurer went to Columbus to throw for the Buckeyes, who offered him on the spot, but OSU flipped a quarterback from Michigan State shortly after.

That made Maurer’s decision ultimately between the Vols and the Mountaineers, and the lure to play in the SEC and walk in the footsteps of his idol Peyton Manning were too much.

Maurer has great size, a quick release and really good accuracy. Rivals lists him at 6’4″, and 247Sports lists him at 6’2.5″, but he’s probably somewhere in the middle. That’s plenty tall enough to see over defenses.

He’s currently rated as the nation’s No. 18 pro-style quarterback nationally according to 247Sports and the 21st-rated pro-style passer according to Rivals. Those numbers will improve now that he’s done the camp circuit and showed out.

His quick release and accuracy were some of the attributes offensive coordinator Tyson Helton loved about him when he witnessed him throwing in person. Though the signal-caller grew up in the shadow of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, probably pulling for the Gators, the Vols made a ton of sense.

Florida — who hadn’t extended an offer — will run more spread concepts under new coach Dan Mullen, so that made Maurer perhaps not the best fit for that offense. The Vols are going to be a smashmouth offense with a pro-style passer if everything works out, and there may be some West Coast elements to the scheme as well, if Helton’s body of work at USC is any indication.

This all makes Maurer’s accuracy and ability to throw on the run intriguing aspects of his game. He continues to shine no matter where he goes and throws. He made the Elite 11 Finals and finished among the final 12 quarterbacks at the event, which earned him a spot in Nike’s The Opening Finals, which starts Saturday in Frisco, Texas.

Maurer will get the opportunity to prove he’s among the top quarterbacks in the country. He runs an eye-popping 4.5 40-yard dash, which proves his athleticism. So, that’s a pretty strong skill set when you factor in everything else he brings to the table. The offense and his skills fit what UT wants to do.

“Tennessee runs a true pro-style offense,” Maurer told VolQuest.com’s Austin Price. “Tennessee has some best facilties in the country and the coaches made a big impression on me.”

It’s going to be interesting to see now what happens with quarterback recruiting for the Vols. Are they finished? With the only scholarship signal-callers on the roster being Jarrett Guarantano, Will McBride, fifth-year graduate transfer Keller Chryst and incoming freshman JT Shrout, it may not be a bad idea for UT to keep going after another quarterback it really likes. If Chryst beats out JG for the starting gig, it’s not out of the question that the latter would transfer, even though he’d still have two years of eligibility remaining after Chryst graduates.

If Tennessee is still going to recruit a quarterback, that would be Alabama commitment Taulia Tagovailoa, the Hawaiian quarterback who currently goes to school at Thompson High School in Alabaster, Alabama. Of course, he is the younger brother of Crimson Tide national championship game hero Tua Tagovailoa, who is expected to be in a heated battle with Jalen Hurts for the Tide’s starting QB gig.

There’s a chance the Vols can flip Tagovailoa from the Tide, though. Even though Alabama would seem the logical fit, the Tide also has a pledge from 4-star quarterback Paul Tyson in this class, and Tyson is the grandson of legendary coach Bear Bryant. So, the younger Tagovailoa isn’t a guarantee to be UA’s quarterback of the future, either.

If the Vols can somehow get Maurer and Tagovailoa, that would be exceptional, but Maurer is a stellar pickup all by himself. He’s got a lot of attributes that should make him a coveted player for a lot of teams if they saw them in person. That’s what happened for the Vols, who loved what they saw, and he became Helton’s hand-picked man in this class.

Like Shrout before him, Maurer has thrown his share of interceptions in high school, but that isn’t something (obviously) that scares off Tennessee coaches. Helton believes he can mold those positive attributes and turn those guys into quality SEC quarterbacks.

Head coach Jeremy Pruitt likes him, too, according to 247Sports’ Luke Stampini.

“The coaching staff, you know,” he said. “Sitting down with Coach [Jeremy] Pruitt for about an hour and a half, him just saying I’m the guy. He doesn’t just like the way I throw the football or run. He likes my toughness most of all.”

247Sports’ Greg Biggins thinks Maurer can be “elite.”

It has been a long time since the Vols had one of those signal-callers who could get the ball downfield. Yes, Joshua Dobbs was a game-changing athlete, but he struggled throwing vertically consistently, and Butch Jones’ one-dimensional offense didn’t help. You have to go back to Tyler Bray for when UT had a quality thrower, but the lack of a running game did Tennessee in then.

Can this staff put everything together offensively? That remains to be seen. But Maurer will have the opportunity to lead Tennessee’s offense into the next generation.

Worth reading 6.27.18: Vols’ talent

If you read only one thing about the Vols today . . .

. . . make it this, from Jimmy Hyams:

Which UT position has the most talent, depth

Part discussion of the talent vs. development debate, and part unit rankings, Hyams concludes that the linebacking corps is the most talented and deepest unit for the Vols headed into 2018. Read the whole thing.

Other Vols stuff worth reading today

  1. Tennessee targets, storylines at the Rivals 5-star Challenge, via VolQuest
  2. Jeremy Pruitt relieves two doctors with long record of serving Vols football of duties, via Gridiron Now. There’s some talk of concern about this, but we really can’t know the reason for this at this time. If it’s for more lax standards relating to player safety, then it’s bad. But it may just be the natural phenomenon of long-tenured employees not keeping up with the times, either. We don’t know.
  3. Tennessee QB target announcing Wednesday morning, via 247Sports. Crystal Ball is looking favorable for the Vols.
  4. Second-Year Surge: Tennessee lineman Eric Crosby, via 247Sports
  5. Second-Year Surge: Tennessee RB Trey Coleman, via 247Sports
  6. 2 Deep Class Breakdown, via Phil Steele. Tennessee’s tied for 84th.
  7.  Former Vols WR CJ Fayton happy to return as VFL director, via 247Sports
  8. Top five opposing offensive lines on 2018 schedule, via 247Sports
  9. Tennessee national championship team still united 20 years later, via KnoxNews
  10. Rick Barnes says Tennessee Vols season was good last year, but this year can be better, via KnoxNews

 

Worth watching 6.26.18

More John Ward, and yes, it’s audio, but with John, it was always “watching,” even using only our ears:


Great tribute to John, after his final broadcast:


Grant Williams can apparently do it all:

Worth reading 6.26.18

Live, from the Hyatt Regency in Chicago, without my favored schedule or equipment!

If you read only one thing about the Vols today . . .

. . . make it this, from Will:

10 Questions for 2018: Defensive Line Depth

Other Vols stuff worth reading

  1. Tennessee led nation in missed starts two straight years, via the Times Free Press. The Vols presumed starters missed a combined 58 games in 2017. Only Ball State was close, with 57. Next was Florida, with 49. Woo.
  2. Second-Year Surge: Tennessee DL Matthew Butler, via 247Sports
  3. Second-Year Surge: Tennessee tight end LaTrell Bumphus, via 247Sports
  4. Tennessee Recruiting: Jalil Clemons Camps, Commits
  5. Tennessee Vols QB Jarrett Guarantano Manning Passing Academy ‘a dream come true’, via 247Sports
  6. Vols among favorites for Kansas RB Breece Hall, via 247Sports
  7. Vols offer massive 2022 OT prospect Kiyaunta Goodwin, via 247Sports. “Massive,” as in, “just finished middle school and is already 6’7″, 370 pounds.”
  8. Tennessee to Host John Ward Tribute Ceremony Wednesday – University of Tennessee, via UTSports
  9. Did a tape voiced by John Ward help Vols land Ernie Grunfeld?, via 247Sports
  10. Jeff Powell Sugar Bowl TD was John Ward’s top call, via 247Sports
  11. John Ward’s voice helped shape Vols basketball program, too, via 247Sports
  12. Voice of the Vols John Ward mixed professionalism, pranks, via 247Sports
  13. Betting odds for SEC teams to qualify for College Football Playoff, via Gridiron Now

10 Questions for 2018: Defensive Line Depth

The coaches who hit it big at Tennessee’s rival institutions – Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Kirby Smart – all validated themselves in year two. It’s a well-documented leap, one great coaches tend to make. The foundation Jeremy Pruitt inherits isn’t as strong as the ones those three built from: fewer bricks, more mess, etc. But for Tennessee, the 2019 goal also doesn’t have to be the College Football Playoff for Pruitt to be a year two success story.

We almost certainly won’t be entertaining any of these in 2018, but in 2019 Pruitt could validate himself by being the first Tennessee coach in a long time to:

  • Win 10 games (2007)
  • Win the SEC East (2007)
  • Lose less than four games (2004)

While Butch Jones made progress from Derek Dooley’s tenure in total victories and ranked wins, these three barriers still stand. Jones’ teams flirted with them in 2015 and 2016, but were left with only a pair of 9-4 seasons. As such, there is still a step the Vols can make, now under Pruitt’s watch, between year one and competing for the national championship.

All of that to say: this team has a ton of questions in 2018. But we’ll start with the one that might be the biggest question mark for 2019, which could stand in the way of a breakthrough.

#10: Defensive Line Depth

A coaching change brings a fresh start, and a significant part of that is falling back on recruiting rankings for players who haven’t panned out yet. “They were ranked so high for a reason,” we tell ourselves, “and these new coaches, who are always better than our old coaches, can get the most out of them!”

The more optimistic you like to be, the more you’ll lean on this kind of thinking for players like Jarrett Guarantano and Drew Richmond. Lane Kiffin did this very thing for Jonathan Crompton and Montario Hardesty. But nowhere could it be more helpful for Tennessee this fall than on the defensive line.

In Tennessee’s celebrated 2015 recruiting class, three of the five highest-rated signees were defensive linemen. The other two were Preston Williams, who left the team, and Alvin Kamara, who’s doing alright for himself. Kahlil McKenzie elected to go early to the NFL.

But two remain: Kyle Phillips and Shy Tuttle. And in Tennessee’s 2016 class, the third highest-rated signee was Jonathan Kongbo.

Kongbo complicated my analogy by moving to outside linebacker, but in a 3-4 scheme there’s still some truth to the point.

So the Vols might get more production from one or all of these three under a new coaching staff. If so, awesome! That could go a long way toward the Vols having a successful 2018.

But it won’t matter in 2019, because all three of them are seniors.

So no matter how well guys like Phillips and Tuttle play, they aren’t long-term answers for the program. One can hope we don’t need too many of the backups this fall, but next year? Those guys will be the guys.

So who are those guys?

Darrell Taylor, a redshirt junior, could play a similar role to Kongbo; we’ll learn more about that this fall. Two options on the interior – Paul Bain and Alexis Johnson – are also seniors. So as it stands today, here are the returning, 2019-eligible players listed as defensive linemen on Tennessee’s roster:

  • Deandre Johnson, Jr (2019)
  • Darrell Taylor, R-Sr
  • Matthew Butler, Jr
  • Kivon Bennett, Jr
  • Eric Crosby, Jr
  • Ja’Quain Blakely, R-Jr

Darrell Taylor, who again could be better categorized as a linebacker in Pruitt’s scheme, had 27 tackles last year. Alexis Johnson had 14. The rest of those guys combined for seven.

This makes Tennessee’s 2018 signees – Greg Emerson, Brant Lawless, Emmit Gooden, plus Jordan Allen at DE/OLB – critical to next season’s success. How soon and how often will we see them this fall? And will one or more from the existing depth chart take a step up?

If the old recruiting stars pan out for Phillips, Tuttle, and Kongbo this fall, that’s great news for the short-term. But whether they do or not, Tennessee’s long-term future faces a significant question mark on the defensive line. We should get our first taste of the answers this fall.

 

Tennessee Recruiting: Jalil Clemons Camps, Commits

Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt has fared well recently in picking up several coveted recruiting prospects for the Vols, but he has said time and time again that he trusts his recruiting evaluations over those of analysts.

That manifested itself Sunday with an out-of-the-blue pledge from Starkville, Mississippi, defensive end/outside linebacker Jalil Clemons, who camped in Knoxville this past weekend and committed. He had an offer before heading up to the camp, but the coaching staff saw him in person, and when the two parties liked what they saw — Clemons of campus and the Vols of the prospect — he chose the Vols.

The 6’3″, 240-pound prospect did not have a Power 5 offer besides the Vols. He did have offers from Memphis, UT-San Antonio, Florida Atlantic, Arkansas State and others. Despite the lack of big-time offers, Clemons is a guy the Vols zeroed in on for a while. They love his speed, and he has the body type to add 40 pounds and play at 270-280. That’s intriguing for a staff that wants to make the Vols a much bigger team, as evidenced by recent recruiting exploits.

Clemons told GoVols247’s Ryan Callahan that UT coaches compared him to former Alabama outside linebacker/pass rusher Ryan Anderson, who is now in the NFL. His high school coach, Chris Jones, compared Clemons to MSU defensive end Jeffrey Simmons.

Last year, Clemons had 72 tackles, including 22 for a loss and 11 sacks for the Starkville High Yellow Jackets.

He told 247Sports’ Yancy Porter that the hometown Bulldogs told the school they weren’t going to recruit him because he was too small. That’s a mistake, according to his high school coach.

“Wait until he gets at some of these camps and combines this summer,” Jones told Porter a month ago, according to Callahan’s story. “He’ll blow up. Hands down, he’s better than (LSU commitment and teammate) Zach Edwards. That’s no knock on Zach. Jalil is just in another league.”

As we’ve mentioned before on this site, Pruitt’s evaluations are paramount to Tennessee achieving early success. The Vols may not immediately recruit with the likes of Alabama and Georgia, but they also can’t afford to miss on guys who may not be as highly rated as teams like the Crimson Tide’s and Bulldogs’ prospects. After all, they compete with those teams every year.

So, players like Clemons need to be the kind of player coaches project them to be.

Given the way Pruitt coached and developed in his time as defensive coordinator with the Tide, Bulldogs and Florida State Seminoles, it’s hard to doubt him. Even if you think this may be an early reach, there’s no way this staff quits recruiting outside linebackers. And if Clemons continues to develop, this will wind up a steal.

If he doesn’t, the two can part ways. Happens all the time.

But what more can you ask for? This staff laid eyes on Clemons, liked what they saw, thought he fit the scheme and took a commitment. That may not be what the star-gazers like, but Pruitt gets paid the big bucks to make these decisions.

The Vols are currently ranked 19th in the nation in recruiting and just eighth in the SEC. Expecting a smallish class, it’s going to be interesting to see just how high this class can rise. With limited spots, you know the staff must really like Clemons to take him now. There’s no reason to think this is a stretch taking a commit like this.

I personally like it. I want Clemons to add the weight and come in with a chip on his shoulder. If he’s an SEC prospect, it’ll bear itself out between now and national signing day. Welcome aboard!

Worth watching: Ward on 1998 Arkansas

I will never, ever tire of this, and Ward’s description of it just makes it all the more compulsory today:


There’s a speech from Ward after Chesney, for those of you who want to skip forward:


The coolest thing about this next video? Ward does that thing he does. At the end, when he shoots for the trash can, you know it’s coming, but he makes you wait. Is he not going to say it? Surely, he’s going to say it. And only then, “Bottom!” It’s this that made me realize that that might be the most magical thing about his voice synched with all those memories all those years.


Bob, talking about Ward.

Worth reading 6.22.18: Newcomers

If you read only one thing about the Vols today . . .

. . . make it this, from Patrick Brown at 247Sports:

Expectations for each Tennessee newcomer in 2018, Part II

Other Vols stuff worth reading today

  1. Jeremy Pruitt remains optimistic regarding Vols’ Trey Smith. via 247Sports
  2. Vols’ Jeremy Pruitt: Individual recruiting prowess ‘overrated’, via 247Sports
  3. Tennessee 2018 FPI – Volunteers, via ESPN. ESPN’s FPI projects every Tennessee game this season. Only five are over 50%, although two more are right around 40%.
  4. Jeremy Pruitt shares toughest part working for Nick Saban, thoughts on Mack Wilson, via 247Sports
  5. Tennessee Vols football’s 2018 opponents at a glance: Georgia Bulldogs, via 247Sports
  6. Everyone has a John Ward story because John Ward reached everyone, via Gridiron Now
  7. For generations of Tennessee fans, John Ward brought Vols sports to life, via Saturday Down South
  8. Paul Finebaum recalls fond story about John Ward, via 247Sports
  9. John Ward photo gallery, via UTSports

Behind the paywalls

  • Four-star LB Kane Patterson visits Vols again, approaching decision, via 247Sports
  • Offer, visit put Tennessee among favorites for Florida QB Brian Maurer, via 247Sports