Kollie a High Caliber Prospect On and Off the Field

Yesterday we wrote about newly offered instate Linebacker Prince Kollie.  We subsequently had a chance to interview him about his recruitment below:

Q: What’s your current height and weight, and how old are you?

A: “6’1, 200 pounds.  I turned 17 in March.”

Q: You play all over the field for Davy Crockett.  What side of the field and/or positions do you feel are your best and which would you prefer to play in college?

A: “I feel like right now my best position is Safety, but I’ve gotten more and more comfortable with the idea of playing in the box as a LB.  Really though I’m willing to do whatever it takes to help the team and get on the field”

Q: Do you feel like you’re a leader for the team?  If so, what kind of leadership qualities do you bring?

A: “Yes sir, I’m expecting to be a leader for my team this upcoming season.  I’ve got lots of great examples of leaders, from my older brother who was a leader on an undefeated team here at David Crockett a few years ago as well my Head Coach.  He always says, ‘You have to lead from the front, not from the back,’ and I try to take that to heart”

Q: You’ve got an impressive GPA and some high-level academic schools have offered you.  Talk about why school is so important to you.

A: “My family emigrated here from Liberia and both of my parents are teachers.  Our family puts God and academics at the top, and I know that sports won’t last forever and that you’ve got to have a back-up plan.”

Q: Where have you visited so far, and which schools do you plan to see after the shutdown ends?

A: “So far I’ve been to a Tennessee for last season’s game against Mississippi State and I also visited Virginia and Wake Forest this spring before the shutdown.  I would like to take some more visits when I can but I don’t have any planned at the moment.”

Q: Did you grow up a fan of any school? 

A: “No sir, not really.  More a fan of certain players.”

Q: Any Tennessee players in particular?

A: “The Linebacker that just graduated (Daniel Bituli).  I like the way he plays the game.”

Q: Who at Tennessee gave you the offer and how did they deliver the news?

A: “Coach Derrick Ansley contacted me and told me he liked my film, then gave me his number and asked me to call.  That’s when he told me about the offer.”

Q: How did it feel to get an offer from the instate team?

A: “Oh, it was big.  That was the one I and some people around me have been waiting for.  My Mom is ‘Go Vols’ all the way.  She’s a big Titans fan, too.”

Q: Do you feel any instate pull to the Vols now that you have that offer? 

A: “Absolutely.  I really like the love the fanbase has shown me, it’s been overwhelming.”

Q: Where are you in your recruitment, and what schools are standing out at the moment?

A: “I’m still open.  I don’t have a Top 10 or anything like that at the moment, but there are some schools standing out like Tennessee, Georgia, a couple of other SEC schools, and then some ACC schools like UVA and Wake Forest.  Those guys were the first to offer and believe in me.  I also like the smaller campuses since my high school is pretty small.  I do have an idea of schools that the top though.  I’d like to narrow it down with my family and my coach by the end of May”

Q: Given your academic prowess, are you familiar at all with the success guys like Josh Dobbs and Grant Williams – high profile professional athletes – also had off the field while at Tennessee?

A: “Yes sir, I’ve heard about both of those guys from friends and family, and they’re both great examples of how to get it done on and off the field”

Q: Lastly, anything else fans should know about you?

A: “Just that I and my family are very God oriented and our faith is extremely important to us.”

As should be obvious, Prince is an outstanding young man.  Incredibly respectful and with a good head on his shoulders and family support system, he’s going to be an asset for whichever program he chooses.  It does seem like Tennessee is in a good spot at the moment, though he wasn’t willing to come out and explicitly name any leaders.  But the Vols do have his mother in their corner, and Tennessee being the homestate school definitely matters to him.  Right now he’s not in any hurry to do something, but as we all know in recruiting things change by the minute, and we’ve seen throughout the last month or so in particular recruiting has become wilder than ever.  What we do know is that Kollie’s stock has taken off, and with good reason.  His will be a recruitment to watch as the Vols look to continue to stock their Linebacker room with dominant athletes while keeping the best Tennessee talent in Knoxville wearing Big Orange.  

Vols Put Another Instate Offer Out, Adding to Athletic LB Board

Tennessee made an interesting offer on Sunday, letting instate LB Prince Kollie know that he has a spot in Knoxville.  Kollie, a 3-star prospect on 247 Sports (unrated by Rivals), plays for David Crockett High School in “Tennessee’s Oldest Town” of Jonesborough, near the Tri-Cities and the Virginia border. 

Listed at 6’2 and 192 pounds, Kollie projects as an ILB in Tennessee’s 3-4 system and has seen his recruitment go from a steady burn to a boil in the last week.  The Volunteers’ offer follows those from Oklahoma and Georgia and builds on the likes of Kentucky, Mississippi State, and a six  ACC schools including relatively nearby Virginia Tech (which is not only close but has a tie, as the Hokies DC Justin Hamilton coached Kollie’s high school coach in college) among others.  Obviously the offers from the Sooners and Dawgs stand out and possibly got the attention of the Tennessee staff, but when you dig deeper you can see why the Vols would be very interested.

Start with the stats.  Last season, playing both ways and multiple positions on each side of the ball, Kollie made 78 tackles with 4 TFLs, 3 forced fumbles, 2 sacks, 1 INT and 1 fumble recovery, all the while catching 68 passes for almost 1,100 yards and 9 TDs to go with a rushing TD.  Second, and with the caveat that David Crockett is in Tennessee’s 5A classification so isn’t the best football in the state (but far from poor), check the film.  Kollie is aggressive, goes after contact, appears to have an outstanding vertical jump, and gets sideline to sideline.  Finally, as one might expect with offers from schools like Virginia, Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt and Tulane, Kollie is also an excellent student, with a 3.8 GPA. 

Kollie adds to Tennessee’s LB board, and joins a group of two other offerees in Kaemen Marley and Raheim Sanders who share similar builds –  in the 6’2-6’3 and 200-210 pound range –  and athleticism along with their ability to play all over the field.  Of the three, Marley is more highly rated by both 247 Sports and Rivals, but at this point all three have strong offers lists that include Tennessee as well as other powers like Ohio State, Georgia, Oklahoma and Auburn.


While the Vols are in a dogfight for instate stud ILB Junior Colson with Michigan (who has family ties working in its favor), and are heavily involved with studs like 5-stars Terrence Lewis and Smael Mondon as well a few other guys with bigtime offer lists like Greg Penn and Ian Jackson, UT wouldn’t be considered at the top for any of them. One wonders if Marley, Sanders, and Kollie concentrated on not just one side of the ball but one position (in this case, LB) if they’re respective rankings wouldn’t be meaningfully higher, because even though they all play a lot of WR they really jump off the screen when they play defense with their explosiveness. In fact, Marley in particular was just downgraded by 247 specifically due to it being “hard to nail down a position for him.”  All three have the look of dudes we’ve all seen flying all over the field for bigtime defenses like Auburn, LSU and Florida for years, and are the kind of guys that in the end you get into your program and find a place for them so they can make gamechanging plays for you instead of those programs.

Kollie adds to a growing number of instate players the Vols are chasing in a crop that is perhaps stronger than the popular narrative.  With commitments from WR Walker Merrill, ATH Elijah Howard, and potentially guys like Colson and OL William Parker sooner rather than later, Tennessee has a chance to once again build its class around instate prospects.  And with some momentum during COVID-19 imposed shutdown and the and a need for athletic playmakers all over the field, Kollie is an intriguing offer for a variety of reasons.

Stories of the Decade: A Smokey Gray Almost

My wife and I got married in August of 2013. When we came back from our honeymoon, the first question everyone asked was, of course, “What do you think of the new uniforms?”

Unlike Lane Kiffin’s last minute switcheroo with the black uniforms, Tennessee fans got almost two months of build-up for the smokey grays. My informal opinion is most fans went on to prefer the Nike version with its truly unique helmet, as opposed to the adidas version that eventually showed up at just about every other school they had under contract. The black unis were a hit because, in large part, the Vols played so well in them, even those who really hated the idea couldn’t be so loud about it. I’ve joked before that in my eight years of writing at Rocky Top Talk, the only comment my dad ever left on a post was to express his disdain for the black unis.

Uniforms are serious, polarizing business. As we speak, it feels like Nike is intentionally screwing up NFL uniforms just to make more money when they bring back the old look a couple years later. I’m a fan of clean, unique looks. It’s one of the great things about Tennessee: our orange is immediately distinguishable, as are our checkerboards even when Kentucky tries to steal them. The memories of the Butch Jones era aren’t always fond, but those first Nike unis with the checkerboard stripe down the side of the pants and the back of the helmet? I love those. It keeps everything great about Tennessee’s traditional look, and adds a slight touch to make them even more uniquely ours. If you have an iconic franchise, there’s no reason they should ever wear something like this:

(Also, these are the best road unis we’ve ever worn:)

The initial reaction to the smokey grays seemed somewhere in the middle – a big change for an iconic brand. But in the weeks (and years) ahead, man, they sold. Not just the jerseys, but lots of gray merchandise. I still have a lot of it; it’s helpful when you’re trying to be loud, but not too loud, in hostile territory.

Year one for Butch Jones started off okay: the Vols beat Austin Peay in the opener, then rode an enormous wave of turnovers to blow by Western Kentucky 52-20. Then the Vols were Marcus Mariotaed at Oregon, and Nathan Petermaned themselves at Florida. A 31-24 survival of South Alabama didn’t warm any fuzzies.

Georgia came to Knoxville ranked sixth. The year before, they came as close to disrupting Alabama’s dynasty without actually doing it as anyone, a feat only topped by themselves a few years later. In 2013 they lost a 38-35 thriller at Clemson in the opener, then rebounded with a 41-30 win over South Carolina. The week before Knoxville, they beat LSU 44-41. These dudes were tested, and the Aaron Murray, Todd Gurley, Malcolm Mitchell offense was lighting it up. The Dawgs opened as 10.5-point favorites and it swelled to 13.5 by kickoff.

My wife comes from a huge baseball family, heavily familiar with the sports DNA. But she was newer to football. And getting married three weeks before the first game of the Butch Jones era, I was nervous. It’s a question many of us have asked at some point in the last decade: will the Vols be good enough in time for this person I love to become attached to them?

Georgia scored 10 points on their first two drives. The Vols got a field goal early in the second quarter, but the Dawgs immediately answered with a touchdown. It was 17-3 at halftime, and the Vols had punted four times, plus a three-and-out to open the third quarter.

And then Georgia missed a 39-yard field goal with nine minutes left in the third quarter.

I don’t know how many fans do the two-possessions math, but it’s enough to make a difference. The Vols hadn’t moved the ball all day, but we were still in it with #6 Georgia. And when that happens, all it takes is one play.

The spark, as it turned out, came from Pig Howard. We all know where this game is headed, but before that, Howard caught a 33-yard pass from Justin Worley to get the Vols to the Georgia 40 yard line. Worley ran for 11, then Howard ran for 10. And then, on 3rd-and-10:

https://twitter.com/DrewRoberts/status/386631472662056960

Back in it.

The Vols got a stop, but couldn’t capitalize. But Michael Palardy, doing double duty, bombed a 57-yard punt to back the Dawgs up. Tennessee’s defense earned a three-and-out.

There’s a list of great Neyland Stadium moments that happened in a loss. Everything until the end zone interception in the final minutes against #1 Notre Dame in 1990. The screen pass to Travis Stephens pre-hobnail. Cedric Houston almost going the distance right away against #1 Miami in 2002. Everything before the flash flood against Oregon in 2010. That first interception against Oklahoma in 2015.

This is definitely on that list:

Before he was the guy making three dozen tackles in big games, Jalen Reeves-Maybin was the guy who blocked this punt. Devaun Swafford gets the score, I believe it’s Geraldo Orta who gets the decleater at the goal line. And Neyland and the Vols are fully alive.

What’s truly amazing about this game is that everything left to happen all transpired in the last minute of the third quarter, the fourth, and the overtime. Aaron Murray ran for 57 yards on the last play of the third, Georgia scored on the first play of the fourth, and maybe it’s over. But nope: Rajion Neal busts one on 4th-and-1 for 43 yards, then finishes off the drive, and we’re tied again. The Vols get a stop, and two epic drives unfold. Tennessee goes 80 yards in 13 plays, converting two 4th-and-1’s and a 3rd-and-10. Neal scores again from seven yards out, and the Vols have their first lead of the day, 31-24, with 1:54 to go. Rajion on the day gets 148 yards on 28 carries.

Aaron Murray, to his absolute credit, refuses to be denied. Ten plays, 75 yards, no timeouts, three third down conversions, including a two yard pass with five seconds left to send it to overtime.

You know how it ends. But this one was a great example of what can be in a coach’s first year, even when you don’t win. Butch Jones was already off and running on the recruiting trail. But this one made people believe, including my wife. It’s a great testimony to what Neyland can be, even when we don’t win.

The Vols had to sit with it through the bye week. South Carolina, ranked 11th, was next. Tennessee didn’t play as well as they did against Georgia.

But Marquez North and Michael Palardy found a way.

If you forgot, and I bet you haven’t, Derek Dooley never beat a ranked team in three years. When Butch Jones almost got #6 Georgia, then beat #11 South Carolina?

Here’s one of the pictures that’s changed the most over time:

When it happens, you think it’s the first of many. Turns out, it might’ve been the best win in all of Jones’ tenure. His teams went on to beat #19 Georgia, #12 Northwestern, #19 Florida, #25 Georgia, and #24 Nebraska. None were ranked higher on gameday than #11 South Carolina here. Among teams ranked in the final AP poll, Jones’ Vols beat #24 Northwestern in 2015, and #14 Florida and #16 Virginia Tech in 2016. None finished the year better than South Carolina in 2013 at #4.

You just never know. We thought Marquez North would be a star for years to come, but this became his finest hour. These two games over three weeks felt like the beginning, like they should’ve earned a much higher place than #9 on our list of the most important stories of the decade. They’re still a terrific example of what can be powerful, in a coach’s first year and in Neyland at all times. But they’ve become the first example of what came to haunt Jones’ tenure: great moments that didn’t ultimately last because they didn’t turn into great seasons.

More in this series:

10. Are you sure the referees have left the field?

About that preseason college football magazine . . .

Hello!

Greetings from the Gameday on Rocky Top bunker, where I have been distancing myself from all manner of unpleasantries. I’d like to thank John Unspellable (apologies to Spencer Hall for stealing his joke for like the fourth time — it works for all Eastern European and Polynesian names and never gets old!) . . . thanks to John K. for entertaining me during this unique period in our history.

It’s a good time to be a health care lawyer with reliable internet, but you might say that it’s kind of a bad time for most everything else. There are more important things than football, right?

But you know what? There are few more important unimportant things than football. By the way, I have been up to my nostrils in football stats, coaching changes, and various and sundry football minutiae and have been typing incessantly for like 48 hours straight, sustaining on air-fried french fries and chicken salad. So really, I’m not responsible for anything I say here.

Where was I? Oh, yes. Footbaw. The question on everyone’s mind right now — just behind “This is probably just allergies, right?” — is this: “When are we going to get back to business?”

“Business,” as it concerns me wearing this hat and you reading this post, translates to questions about whether and when we are going to publish our Gameday on Rocky Top magazine. Allow me to quote Fiddler on the Roof to answer that question: “I’ll tell you. I don’t know.”

Here’s the thing. We don’t yet know whether there’s even going to be a football season. Or whether they’ll allow non-conference games. Or fans.

But here’s the other thing. Does publishing a preseason football magazine even depend on whether there’s a football season? And if so, how much? We’ve said in this space and at the other place many times that football is almost as much about anticipation as it is actually watching the games. So, as long as I have hope that there will be a season, I am interested in football.

But . . . if someday soon somebody in a suit and tie trots out to a podium and says, “No football for you,” well then, spending tens of thousands of dollars to print thousands of copies of a publication that depends on anticipation of a thing that’s definitely not going to happen is probably not in the Harvard Manual of Prudent Business Decisions. Woo for run-on sentences.

But here’s the other, other thing. Suppose that dude in the tie steps up to the podium in June, clears his throat, and exclaims, “GEAUX TIGAHS!” If that happens, we’re going to want a preseason football magazine, stat, y’all. But if I wait until June to get started, it will be too late.

Thus my current state of drowning in football stats, coaching changes, and fingers on auto-pilot fueled by fake fried food saying things without my mind’s consent. We’ve been writing anyway, so we might as well use it, is what I’m saying.

So, the “whether” is pretty easy. That’d be a “yes.”

But “when” and “how” we will publish is still TBD. We’ll let you know when we know. If you have opinions on it, leave said opinion in the comments below and the next time I surface to shower, I’ll check in.

For now, I’m just going to leave you with some random impressions that are rattling around in my troubled mind after a marathon writing session today:

  • This is the year Will Muschamp gets fired by his schedule.
  • Somebody needs to institute a transfer season so there’s a finish line of some sort. I’m all for players transferring; I just wish they wouldn’t do it while I’m in the middle of a sentence.
  • So let me get this straight: Ole Miss fired Hugh Freeze because of a scandal, gave Matt Luke three years to rehab the program’s reputation, and is now tossing the keys to Lane Kiffin? Okay, then.
  • Eliah Drinkwitz is going to stab somebody in the heart while they’re looking up his name.
  • The bat cooties have screwed everybody, but especially programs with new coaches.
  • Georgia’s defense was even better than you thought last year. Its offense was even worse. They really started to miss Jim Chaney a few games in, and this year they’re going to miss Sam Pittman and Jake Fromm and their offensive line, and they draw Alabama from the West. Meanwhile, Florida’s getting better. Therefore: Florida over Georgia for the East this year? I think I just talked myself into it. Discuss.
  • LSU was about as awesome as awesome gets last year. But hoo-boy, a lot of that awesome might well be long gone. It’s not just Burrow; they return less production than anyone in the league. The OL loses 57 of 75 starts! And how much of Burrow was actually Brady? He’s gone, too, and so is the defensive coordinator. They could lose five games. Or they could run the table because of talent and Red Bull. Geaux Tigahs!
  • With anxiety over Georgia and LSU, is this Alabama’s to win again? I hate those guys. But . . .
  • . . . Texas A&M is sneaking up on the West. I may give it to them.
  • Auburn can beat anybody this week and lose to themselves next week.
  • For like the fourth year in a row, we’re going to be asking this question about halfway through the season, “Wait. When did Kentucky get good?”
  • Sam Pittman and Kendal Briles in charge of the offense with Barry Odom leading the defense? Huh. That could actually work.
  • When was the last time Alabama didn’t have to replace either of its coordinators?
  • Mike Leach didn’t even bother hiring an offensive coordinator.

That’s all. My french fries are getting cold.

JT Daniels to Tennessee? Let’s Discuss…

With the news that former 5-star QB JT Daniels has entered the transfer portal, followed by the report from 247 Sports analyst that “Tennessee is among the teams to watch,” all of a sudden there is some real intrigue with a QB position the battle for which seemed to lose a little steam with incoming 5-star freshman Harrison Bailey not getting to participate in spring practice due to COVID-19.

The possibility does not come without its concerns.  Among them, would it cause any of the existing QBs on the roster to leave?  Well, even without the possibility of Daniels joining the program, Tennessee seems likely to lose at least one of JT Shrout and Brian Maurer either before or during the 2020 season.  That would leave the 2020 team with only Jarrett Guarantano, Harrison Bailey, Jimmy Holiday, and whoever of Shrout/Maurer is still around – a talented but very inexperienced bunch behind the much-maligned and tough-but-injury prone Guarantano.  And after 2020 Guarantano will be gone, leaving the position potentially even thinner.  So unless Daniels would cause Bailey, a five-star himself and the jewel of the 2020 class, to leave, any potential loss of personnel would likely be more than negated by Daniels himself.

As for the 2020 team itself, adding Daniels to the mix would be the ultimate “cream rises to the top” moment for Tennessee’s QB room and ultimately vastly raise the ceiling of the 2020 team.  There are three likely scenarios that could play out: 1) Daniels, a Top 20 overall player in the 2018 class despite effectively playing up a year, who started at USC as a true freshman before missing all but the first half of the first game of 2019, wins the job.  That means he’s beaten out the 5th year senior in Guarantano, a ballyhooed freshman in Bailey, and the rest of the QBs on the roster, showing the kind of talent that made him that sort of superstar prospect, 2) Guarantano wins the job.  That means that he – a 5th year senior in his first season with the same offensive coordinator as the season before – has beaten out Daniels, Bailey, and the rest, or 3) Bailey wins the job, which means his talent is just so damn good, and his grasp of the offensive system so damn advanced, that he’s beaten out Daniels, Guarantano, and the rest.  In either scenario, iron has sharpened iron and the Vols will have the best QB they can possibly have leading what should easily be Coach Jeremy Pruitt’s best team in his three-year tenure.  As an aside, any of those would still leave the option of redshirting Maurer, a QB with a lot of potential who would be great to keep in the program.

The next concern is the possibility that Daniels’ presence on the roster turns off high school QBs in the 2021 and 2022 classes.  As far as 2021 is concerned, the Vols are realistically in on only one QB at the moment in Top 100 prospect Kaidon Salter.  And while Salter is potentially a very, very good QB, not only is he not yet committed to Tennessee in the first place but he’s also simply not the prospect Daniels is.  2022 is another issue when it comes to the potential for Tennessee to add an elite QB in the class.  Between instate stud Ty Simpson and legacies Braden Davis and Kaden Martin – all three of whom are high level prospects with elite offers – as well as 4-star MJ Morris who has been to Knoxville multiple times – the Vols are frankly in the best position to land an elite QB in the class in recent and maybe even not so recent memory.  That said, are guys who would at most overlap with Daniels for one season going to be scared off by his presence?  And to be honest, is Daniels likely to still be on the roster in 2022?  One would think that his goal is to spend at most two seasons somewhere – throwing for a ton of yards and winning a ton of games – before bouncing for the NFL.  And if that hasn’t happened maybe he’s simply not the prospect he’s cracked up to be. 

Finally, there is the fact that right now Tennessee is a few scholarships over the 85-limit.  To that I say…so.freaking.what.  That’s what Pruitt gets paid upwards of $5-6 million dollars a year to figure out.  As good of a job as he’s done creating a roster that is an SEC East dark horse even without Daniels in 2020, there are still players who just don’t belong on an SEC roster.  And like the great Brent Hubbs of Volquest always says (usually about a recruiting class, but still), the numbers always work themselves out. 

The bottom line is that Quarterback is the most important position in football, and if you have the opportunity to add a truly elite talent to your roster you do it and figure the rest out later.  Should all of the above concerns be given consideration?  Sure.  But other than Bailey transferring – which is hard to see happening but certainly not impossible – none of them supersede what adding Daniels could do for the 2020 team and for the program overall. 

With the Vols on a Recent Tear, Who Could Be Next?

After landing RB Jaylen Wright, WR Walker Merrill and WR/ATH Roc Taylor in between March 30th and April 10th,  the Tennessee Volunteers have shot to the edge of the Top 10 nationally with its current 11-man 2021 class.  During this time the Vols have also worked their way into multiple top schools lists and have also firmly established themselves as real players for an unprecedented number of elite prospects.  Other than Ohio State, one could easily make the argument that Coach Jeremy Pruitt and his staff have done more to advance their 2021 class than anyone in the country during the shutdown. 

So with that momentum, and with the possibility that the restrictions on campus visits and in-person recruiting could extend for even longer, the question is who could be next to pop for Tennessee? Below we look at fiven(+1) who could like the most likely:

WR Julian Nixon

This one is obvious.  Nixon has been almost over the top with his love for the Vols on Twitter over the last couple of weeks, and has even declared Tennessee to be his leader.  While there is talk that some close to him are trying to get him to slow down – likely due to some pro-Auburn sentiment in his camp – there are a few reasons why that might not work.  For one, like everyone, Nixon is in limbo due to COVID-19, so he may decide that since it’s impossible to know when he’s going to be able to take other visits he might as well just go with what feels right.  Secondly, and more importantly, he might feel a little bit of a sense of urgency in terms of spot availability.  As strange as it sounds considering Nixon is a unique talent due to his size/speed/skillset combination, Tennessee might not have a spot for him forever.  With Taylor’s commitment following Merrill’s, the Vols now have commitments from three pass catchers including Jordan Mosley.  Tennessee ideally would like 3-4 WRs and 2 TEs in this class, and they’re highly prioritizing instate stud TE Hudson Wolfe, who’ll have one of those TE spots as long as he wants it.  The Vols are also quite possibly at the top for TEs Miles Campbell and Trinity Bell, both of whom profile more as pass-catching TEs – the position at which the 6’3, 230 pound Nixon could ultimately profile along the lines of 2020 signee Dee Beckwith.  So what happens if Campbell (who, funny enough, is listed ten pounds lighter than Nixon) or the 6’7 Bell want in?  Does the fact that Roc Taylor is in the same mold factor in at all?  What happens if the Vols make a move with a stud true WR like Deion Colzie or Donte Thornton?  Who knows, but if Nixon truly loves the Vols as much as it appears he might be wise to secure his spot

LB Junior Colson

Colson has set a tentative commitment time for sometime in May, which makes his inclusion on this list fairly easy.  The Midstate stud is near the top of the Vols’ LB board and profiles as an everydown ILB in Tennessee’s 3-4 scheme with the ability to use his speed against the run and in coverage.   With offers from Michigan, LSU, Auburn and Oregon to go with his Tennessee offer, Colson – a consensus  4-star prospect – is clearly an elite talent and the kind of prospect the Vols must keep at home.  So far they’ve done an excellent job in his recruitment, getting him on campus for multiple game visits and junior days and ensuring he knows he’s a high priority for them.  Michigan, where he has some family ties, appears to be Tennessee’s chief competition at the moment, which should give Vol fans some comfort given the fact that Pruitt has dominated Jim Harbaugh in head to head recruitments highlighted by Quarvaris Crouch and Eric Gray (a onetime Wolverine commitment).  That and the fact that Colson is very close friends with Merrill.  A commitment from Colson would give the Vols two bigtime gets in the Midstate and also potentially give Pruitt and DC Derrick Ansley the heir apparent to Henry To’oto’to as the next great Tennessee LB

OL William Parker (used to be Griffin)

Although Parker has his share of bigtime suitors such as Alabama and Ohio State, one gets the sense that the Midstate standout likes the Vols a great deal.  With three visits to Knoxville in the last 6 months –both the South Carolina and Vanderbilt games as well as the February 1st Junior Day – he’s easily most familiar with UT’s campus and vibe.  With what we’ve seen nationwide in terms of prospects choosing to select instate schools or schools close to home during this time, Parker would make sense.  Coaches Chaney and Friend are certainly selling him on being the first OL commitment in the class who would not only be the foundation of Tennessee’s this cycle’s big uglies but also another bigtime instate prospect to (hopefully, along with Colson) choose the Vols, and that pitch could resonate during this prolonged shutdown

OT Colby Smith

While Parker could play Offensive Tackle, he’s probably better suited as a road grader inside.  And after the Vols signed three interior OL in the 2020 class and no true OTs, Tackle is a high priority in the 2021 class.  Enter Smith, a 6’7, 295 pound true tackle from Reidsville, NC.  A 4-star prospect with offers from the instate schools UNC and NCSU, the Vols jumped to the top of Smith’s list after a late January offer and subsequent campus visit and have continued to press hard for him since then.  Notably, that February 1 visit to Knoxville was Smith’s final campus visit before the virus-imposed shutdown. Along with OL Coach Will Friend and NC recruiter extraordinaire Jay Graham, Pruitt himself seems to be heading up this recruitment, which has not gone unnoticed by Smith.  While the Vols are trying hard for 5-star OT Nolan Rucci and have local developmental tackle J’Marion Gooch as well as rising prospect Diego Pounds on the OT board, landing Smith – who looks like he could play in the SEC in year two or three –  would go a long way to ensuring that Tennessee meets it needs at the position

RB Cody Brown OR RB Tiyon Evans

Tennessee will be looking to add at least two RBs in this class and already has one commitment in the aforementioned Wright, a speedster with sneaky size and ability between the tackles.  But while Wright is absolutely a bigtime prospect given his world class speed, the Vols would like to pair him with a truly elite back, something that so far Pruitt has not yet been able to sign in his time at Tennessee.  Brown, a 4-star RB from the Atlanta suburbs, is that, with offers from Georgia, Auburn and other schools like Florida to prove it.  Much more of a bruiser than Wright (or Evans), Brown is also an excellent track and field (shot put, discuss) athlete and showcases that functional athleticism with incredible strength and balance when he runs.  He’s not a burner (again, more Wright and potentially Evans’s department) but he rarely is caught from behind in his film and fits the big back profile that Pruitt so famously loves.  In terms of his recruitment, Brown came to Knoxville for a game last season and then again for the February 1 Junior Day and is also a priority for Auburn but perhaps less so for Georgia.  The homestate Bulldogs recently picked up a RB commitment and assuming they do want to sign two they seem to have a couple of other RBs ahead of Brown.  With the Vols also only having one spot left but having Brown higher on their board, he has an opportunity to jump in Tennessee’s class that might be too good to pass up. 

Evans might play into Brown’s calculus as well.  The JUCO product from Hutchinson C.C. by way of Hartsville, SC, Evans is a high priority for the homestate Gamecocks and the consensus is that after South Carolina offered Evans in late March that he is destined to spend his college career (in mediocrity) in Columbia.  That said, the Vols, who offered Evans almost two months earlier, are also recruiting Evans incredibly hard.  People certainly think that Evans is a Gamecock lean, and he’s never been to Knoxville, but Tennessee RB Coach Jay Graham has a longstanding relationship with him along with deep ties in the state from his stint on the South Carolina staff, so the Vols are in deeper than some might expect and the Vols are pushing hard here. 

In theory the Vols would take whoever wants to commit first, and in theory there is only one RB spot left.  That could cause one of them to go ahead and make a move in the coming months.

With the momentum Tennessee has on the recruiting trail it seems inevitable that the Vols land another commitment in the coming weeks. Who do YOU think it will be?

Stories of the Decade: Are You Sure the Referees Have Left the Field?

The last three weeks we’ve looked back at some of Tennessee’s most rewatchable games: the dramatic, the dominant, and the best performances. It doesn’t take long to realize anything related to most rewatchable for the Vols is going to lean heavy into the past.

But even with fewer happy moments to choose from, I’ve found myself wanting to talk about more recent events as well. Like a lot of places, we put out some decade retrospective stuff in December, focusing on our favorite things from the last ten years. For this summer’s Gameday on Rocky Top Magazine – which we believe will still be a thing – I wrote a piece on the most important stories of the decade and put them in chronological order.

But even before sports were postponed, I found myself thinking about expanded versions of the stories in that list – some good, some bad, some weird – and trying to rank them in order of importance. Of everything that happened to Tennessee football in the 2010’s, which moments ended up having the biggest impact?

Like you, I’m hopeful we’ll get to tell stories about the present and future of Tennessee football really soon. Until then, here’s a look back at the more recent past and how it impacts the present. Starting today, with two games we might’ve thought would be the most difficult losses of the decade at the time they happened. Turns out, they barely made the list.

10. Are you sure the referees have left the field?

Here’s the argument for Derek Dooley heading into year zero one:

  • Not Lane Kiffin
  • Said “britches” in his introductory press conference
  • Mom was entertaining
  • Not Lane Kiffin

But man, points one and four were strong. We wanted this dude to work, especially for those reasons.

Before Kiffin’s departure (which we’ll get to in this list), we were talking ourselves into the Vols as a dark horse SEC East candidate in 2010. The 2009 Vols finished just 7-6, but were 24th in SP+. Aside from big wins over Georgia and South Carolina, Tennessee was competitive with Florida, should’ve beaten Alabama, and ran into one of Virginia Tech’s most dangerous teams in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Eric Berry would go pro and the Vols would need a new quarterback. But the talent level within the program still felt high enough to dream. (2010 was the right year for dreams to come true in the SEC East, as it turned out: South Carolina would win their first and only division title at only 5-3.)

Kiffin’s departure didn’t take down a solid recruiting class right away. And Dooley’s Vols came out feisty: a 13-3 lead on Oregon in the second quarter in Knoxville, and still down just seven late in the third quarter before a pick six opened all the floodgates. The Gators, coming off a two-year tear, won by just 14 against Dooley’s first squad. The reality check could’ve come the next week against UAB, but the Vols survived in overtime.

And then, #12 LSU in Baton Rouge.

Jordan Jefferson – remember when LSU couldn’t find a quarterback who could throw? – ran 83 yards for a touchdown on the game’s first play. And you figure, okay, maybe this is the comeuppance. Maybe this is the reality, we’re going to be bad for a while, and we’ll just take a whipping here.

But LSU’s next two drives ended with an interception and a missed field goal. The Vols tied it up. More turnovers, more missed field goals, and suddenly it’s still 7-7 going to the fourth quarter. LSU added a field goal in the first minute to make it 10-7.

And then, manna from heaven. Two big plays – a 37-yard completion to freshman Justin Hunter on 3rd-and-3, a 20-yard run from Tauren Poole on 3rd-and-6 – and the Vols had the lead. LSU got a 47-yard completion to first and goal at the nine yard line, so the joy didn’t seem built to last. But LaMarcus Thompson made a fantastic end zone interception on the very next play, LSU’s fourth turnover.

The Vols had 4th-and-1 at the LSU 31 with 5:41 to play, went for it, and didn’t get it. And so began a 16-play drive for the Tigers.

We know the ending, but along the way you forget, or at least I did, that on this drive LSU converted 3rd-and-13 and 4th-and-14.

And then, the ending.

I remember one of my friends calling me as soon as Dooley and the Vols came barreling onto the field in celebration, and having about a 20-second conversation about how the Vols – despite being out-gained by like 200 yards – deserved to win because Les Miles deserved to lose a game like this every once in a while. And then I remember hanging up the phone real fast.

I laughed when I went back and read what we wrote at Rocky Top Talk in the immediate postgame: what if those sixty seconds (when we thought we won) are as good as it gets this year?

But then, a month later, enter Tyler Bray. And suddenly, it got better.

Bray rewrote Tennessee’s freshman passing record book, but did so against 1-11 Memphis, 4-8 Ole Miss, 2-10 Vanderbilt, then 6-6 Kentucky. The four-game winning streak on his shoulders built all kinds of optimism for 2011 and beyond under Dooley, with a nice year zero prize: a first (and, we hoped, maybe only) trip to Nashville for the Music City Bowl. North Carolina would serve as a nice Level 2 for Bray, helping us understand more of what we should expect from him in the future.

A fairly compelling football game broke out. Trailing 10-7, Bray hit fellow freshman Da’Rick Rogers for a 45 yard score with 90 seconds left in the first half. That was enough for Carolina to answer, taking a 17-14 lead into the locker room. That score held until the final five minutes, when Bray hit Hunter from eight yards out to give the Vols a 20-17 lead…because the Vols missed the extra point. Dun dun dun.

Carolina turned it over on downs, but the Vols couldn’t run out the clock. UNC took over at their 20 yard line with 31 seconds left and no timeouts. That part, too – all this in just 31 seconds – I’d forgotten.

The clock stops first because Janzen Jackson gets a 15-yard personal foul for…I believe launching is the technical term, though I’m not sure I can recall it being flagged before or since. That’s at the end of a 28-yard completion, so now Carolina has it at the Vol 37. They pick up 12 more yards on the next play, then spike the ball with 16 seconds left. It would’ve been a 42-yard field goal to tie from here.

And then they run a draw play to get a little closer, I guess. It’s a ridiculous idea. But you know what happens next.

Ten years later, it’s still a question worth asking: which loss hurt more? For me, it’s this one: takes away from your momentum at the end of the year, and it’s much less your fault. Plenty of stuff the Vols could’ve done differently, in regulation or the two overtimes to come. But also, the referee is supposed to stand over the ball while Carolina is running half their personnel on and off the field as those final seconds tick down, and prevent T.J. Yates from (wisely) spiking the ball anyway with one second left (followed by the head referee infamously saying, “The game is over.”) These days we have a rule against that. But not in 2010.

In an alternate universe, the Vols and Tar Heels started a home-and-home series the following year, plenty of chances for revenge and all that.

Instead, we got the peak of the Derek Dooley era, fittingly, by beating Butch Jones and Cincinnati in week two of 2011. And some of the steps to that peak came from the build-up of this argument: the Vols went 6-7 in 2010, but were 8-5 when the game ended the first time. I think the 2010 Vols are still overachievers, especially considering the three coaches in three years bit, the way they fought against Oregon and Florida early, and didn’t quit late.

From what I believe was our fourth Music City Bowl recap piece:

It just twists the knife deeper to know that the Vols were beat twice, in a way, because the other team was so insane, it accidentally worked to their advantage.  Both LSU and UNC tried to substitute with far, far too little time left on the clock.  In Baton Rouge, the Vols responded to that insanity in kind, and it cost us.  In Nashville, I’m not sure the umpire ever even saw it…because the thought that they would go ahead and try to kick instead of spiking it on third down really was that crazy.

On January 1, 2011, those two games seemed like they would definitely be both the hardest and craziest losses we took this decade. But just you wait.

Vols Add Roc Taylor to 2021 Class

Tennessee picked up its third commitment of the COVID Shutdown Period on Good Friday when 3-star ATH Roc Taylor tweeted out his commitment to the Vols.  Taylor is a Jumbo ATH at 6-3/4, and ~215 pounds who profiles as a Dee Beckwith/Kyle Pitts-type TE/WR hybrid.  He was incredibly productive last season for Oxford HS in Oxford, AL, with 71 catches for over 1,300 yards and 17 TDs. 

What Taylor is, simply put, is big and athletic, and that functional athleticism is showcased on the hardwood with some nasty dunks as well as on the gridiron where he uses his physicality and frame to box out defenders on jump balls and somewhat shocking speed for that size when beating defensive backs deep.  While he doesn’t currently hold offers from either of instate Alabama or Auburn (who appeared to be close), Taylor does have them from the likes of Florida, South Carolina, Georgia Tech and others.  Given his production, size, and speed, he’s likely a prospect who would have picked up more offers if there had been more campus visits and camps allowed this spring, but after getting him on campus right before the shutdown the Vols took advantage.

How he fits in this class is obviously very interesting.  Is he one of likely two TEs that Tennessee is likely to take, or is he the 3rd WR in this class along with 4-star Jordan Moseley (another AL prospect) and Walker Merrill?  Or, does the staff like him so much regardless of what position he ultimately ends up that they felt like they had to pounce when he wanted to commit?  Size wise he obviously looks a lot like 4-star Julian Nixon, for whom Tennessee presumably has a big lead, so how does he impact Nixon’s spot?  The guess here is that the Vols would still take Nixon at WR but the staff feels like they’re not close enough with top WR prospects like Deion Colzie and Donte Thornton to turn Taylor down; AND that they’d still take a TE like Hudson Wolfe but perhaps a pass-catching TE like Miles Campbell or Trinity Bell might no longer have a spot.  There’s also always the possibility that a guy like Taylor could project as a LB down the line and just be an ATH in this class.  Time will tell of course, but it appears that the Vols landed a bigtime athlete and put another stake in the ground in Alabama, where they’re still chasing hard after Yellowhammer studs like Dylan Brooks, Jeremiah Williams, Anquin Barnes, and the aforementioned Bell.

Our Most Rewatchable Performances

In this series we’ve looked at most rewatchable games and most rewatchable beat downs. What about the most rewatchable individual and team performances?

A few of Tennessee’s most memorable individual performances became part of Tennessee’s most rewatchable games. We’ve already covered Josh Dobbs at South Carolina in 2014, Travis Stephens at Florida in 2001, Tony Thompson at Mississippi State in 1990, and Erik Ainge at Kentucky in 2007, among others. There are also some record-breaking performances that simply get overshadowed by the outcome: Al Wilson’s three forced fumbles against Florida in 1998 is a school record, but just one piece of that grand narrative.

For this list, I tried to look at games that were particularly defined by what the individual or team did. A huge, huge thanks to the folks who put Tennessee’s football media guide together, which was incredibly helpful in building this list.

10. 1991: Carl Pickens at Louisville

In the first ever ESPN Thursday night game, the season opener saw the #11 Vols, two-time defending SEC Champions, head to Louisville to face current Purdue coach Jeff Brohm (who breaks his ankle in this game). Other than Peyton Manning, I’m not sure any Vol had as much Heisman hype in Week 1 than Carl Pickens. Eric Berry was a more unique story as a defensive player, though Pickens played both ways his freshman season. Heath Shuler would eventually finish second. But Pickens was a two-year standout coming into the ’91 campaign, with Andy Kelly back for his senior year to throw bombs. In this game, Pickens catches a 75-yard touchdown pass and returns a punt 67 yards for another score, the longest combination of two touchdowns by two different means in school history.

9. 1995: Peyton Manning & Joey Kent at Arkansas

Overshadowed immediately because the Vols beat Alabama for the first time in ten years the next week in the number one game on our beat down list. But in the moment, a Top 20 clash between the #10 Vols and #18 Arkansas, who went on to win the SEC West in 1995. The Razorbacks scored 31 points on what became a really good Vol defense. But this was Peyton Manning’s national coming out party: 384 yards through the air, at the time his career high (which he’d go on to top four more times). And Joey Kent tied a school record with 13 receptions (with Pickens from the 1990 Notre Dame game, maybe the most rewatchable game the Vols lost). Tennessee won 49-31, with Manning and Kent both on their way to rewriting the Vol record books.

8. 1999: Tennessee Defense vs Wyoming

There’s a lot of nostalgia here: the season opener after winning the national championship the year before. A great Neyland Stadium moment when Jamal Lewis gets 21 yards on the first play from scrimmage in returning from his ACL tear. For me, this was my first game in the student section as a freshmen at UT. But the school record here belongs to the defense: a ludicrous 13 sacks against the Cowboys. You watch some of these old games and it just wasn’t a fair fight, this one certainly among them.

7. 1998: Tee Martin at South Carolina

This one you probably know: Tee Martin completes his first 23 passes against the Gamecocks, setting an NCAA record. An incredible accomplishment considering he started the year struggling through the air against Syracuse and Florida. Another game time capsule game for the 1998 season.

6. 2011: Tyler Bray, Da’Rick Rogers & Justin Hunter vs Cincinnati

We go back and talk about this game a fair amount, and not for the Derek Dooley vs Butch Jones weirdness. Other than anything from 2016, I think you walked out of this game feeling like the Vols were closer to being “back” than any other point in the last decade. Tyler Bray set a school record for completion percentage among QBs with more than 40 attempts, going 34-of-41 (82.9%) for 405 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. And Da’Rick Rogers and Justin Hunter turned in the only dual 10+ catch/100+ yard game in school history, both getting 10 catches with Hunter gaining 156 yards and Rogers an even 100. Injuries derailed all this momentum the next few weeks, but in the moment, life was good. And it remains one of the best passing/receiving performances in school history.

5. 2019: Jarrett Guarantano, Jauan Jennings, Marquez Callaway & Josh Palmer at Missouri

What’s the most rewatchable game from last season? Kentucky and the Gator Bowl have the best endings. South Carolina is most enjoyable from a beat down perspective. And if you’re looking for the one that provides the most hope, it might actually be Alabama. The Vols beat Missouri 24-20; doesn’t seem like a lot to shout about. But behind a couple of blocked field goals, a Mizzou trick play touchdown, and a fumble in Tiger territory, Tennessee dominated. The Vols outgained Missouri by 246 yards, their largest margin vs FBS competition in five years. Jarrett Guarantano threw for 415 yards, joining Manning and Bray as the only Vols to hit that number. And for the first time in school history, Tennessee had three receivers break the 100-yard barrier: 6 for 124 for Josh Palmer, 5 for 115 for Jauan Jennings, 6 for 110 for Marquez Callaway.

4. 1989: Chuck Webb vs Ole Miss

With Reggie Cobb’s Tennessee career over at midseason, the CobbWebb became simply the Chuck Webb show. And no one has ever been better than Webb on this day: 294 yards on the ground against what became an 8-4 Ole Miss team. It’s a ridiculous performance, one of two from his late season flurry that deserves your attention…

3. 1989: Chuck Webb vs Arkansas

Three years before they joined the SEC, #10 Arkansas met the #8 Vols in the January 1, 1990 Cotton Bowl. And Webb was at it again, running for 250 yards, still the second-most in school history. It’s a better opponent in what became a really good football game: the Vols won 31-27, capping off an 11-1 SEC Championship season.

2. 2001: Kelley Washington vs LSU

In Tennessee’s first game post-9/11, #7 Tennessee hosted #14 LSU on Saturday night in Knoxville. We know what happened in the rematch and all that, though you’ll get less bad vibes watching the first encounter because Rohan Davey doesn’t get hurt. But the story here became Kelley Washington: 11 catches for a school-record 256 yards. I’ve never been at a game where everyone in the building knew what was going to happen, and then it happened anyway like this. Casey Clausen was going to #15. And Nick Saban’s defense simply could not stop it.

1. 1997: Peyton Manning vs Kentucky

The Couch/Manning graphic at the start of this broadcast is nice for storytelling purposes, but there simply was no “Manning vs _________” for any other college quarterback by this point. Couch, the #1 pick in the 1999 NFL Draft, was good: 476 yards, three touchdowns, 31 points for Kentucky. Manning was Manning: 523 yards, still a school record vs power five competition, five touchdowns, 59 points for the Vols. Peyton had bigger wins and more crucial performances, specifically two weeks later against Auburn in the SEC title game. But if you want the poetry of the individual performance, this is Manning’s masterpiece.

Vols Staff Doing Work During Shutdown

Having built Tennessee’s roster to the point that some are talking about the Vols as a darkhorse in the SEC East in 2020, it’s clear that Head Coach Jeremy Pruitt has done an outstanding job recruiting since taking over just weeks before the inaugural Early Signing Period in the 2018 recruiting cycle.  Now that he’s accomplished that task, the next step, as we’ve spoken often of, is for Tennessee to step up its success in landing more and more elite players.  To refresh, we’ve (arbitrarily) defined elite players as those with offers from at least one of the following programs: Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oregon and Penn State.  These programs have at least one College Football Playoff appearance and/or at least one NY6 bowl game AND multiple recent recruiting classes that consistently land in the Top 5-10 nationally. 

As we all know, the NCAA’s ban on in-person (i.e., on campus) recruiting – at first through April 15th and since extended to at least May 31st – has thrown the entire college football recruiting world for a loop.  Prospects who planned to tour multiple college campuses can no longer do so, schools who planned to host prospects for spring practices and/or spring games can no longer do so either.  Therefore, schools have been limited to phone calls and electronic communication via texting, video chats, and Twitter messaging and graphics.  As almost all of that is done in private and very little of it is announced by prospects, any traction that schools have gained (or lost) with particular players is somewhat unknown to the general public.

That said, over the last week or so there have been quite a few prospects putting out lists of their top schools, as well as other intel that various recruiting services have been able to gather.  And the upshot for Tennessee is that Pruitt and his staff seem to have made quite a bit of headway with a relatively large number of players, most of whom fall into that “elite” category and some of whom haven’t even yet made it to Knoxville for a visit. 

As we noted back in late February, new Tennessee Tight End Coach Joe Osovet has gotten the Vols involved with an inordinate amount of high level prospects in general and particularly in the DMV region along with PA and NY.   And although the Vols (at least temporarily) lost out to Maryland for the commitment of bigtime Pass Rusher Demoiun Robinson, Tennessee just this past week made the latest round of cuts for four(!) players from Maryland, including Robinson’s high school teammate 4-star DL Marcus Bradley (Top 6: Tennessee, Texas A&M, LSU, OSU, USC and Maryland), as well as three teammates at Baltimore’s St. Frances Academy (where newly signed Vol DL Dominic Bailey just graduated from) in four star ILB Aaron Willis (Top 7: Tennessee, Alabama, LSU, Texas, Michigan, Maryland and Arizona State); four-star defensive tackle Katron Evans (Top 8: Tennessee, Alabama, Arizona State, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, TCU, and USC), and 4-star OLB Jamon Dumas-Johnson (Top 10: Tennessee, Auburn, Ole Miss, Michigan, Florida, Maryland, Georgia, Penn State, Texas A&M and Arizona State).  Few notable things from all of those lists are that Maryland is so far of doing a good job of staying involved with the massive amount of top-tier talent in its state thanks to the recruiting prowess of Head Coach Mike Locksley and that Texas A&M and LSU are going to be the out of state programs against whom the Vols will be battling for this region’s talent. 

Another longer-term target for the Vols from Baltimore who Osovet got the Vols involved with when he was an off-the-field coach, WR Donte Thornton, released a Top 12, which in and of itself is rather meaningless.  But the scuttle continues to be that Tennessee is a big player in this recruitment.  Thornton, along with top-shelf WRs like Deion Colzie, Julian Nixon – who named the Vols his leader over the weekend- and perhaps longtime instate target Adonai Mitchell are the types of talent that the Vols likely could not turn away despite having less of a need at WR this cycle and with the recent commitment of instate star Walker Merrill giving Tennessee two commits at the position already. 

Incidentally, Merrill’s commitment can do nothing but help with his good friend and fellow instate bigtimer, 4-star LB Junior Colson.  The Vols have made a big move for Colson during this time period and now that he’s moved up his commitment timeline to May it feels like good news is coming for the Vols.  Michigan, in particular, won’t go down without a fight for him.  But between having ace recruiter Brian Niedermeyer in charge of his recruitment as well as his position coach as well as the instate pull and location being particularly important to him, the Vols seem like they’ll be in a good spot whenever this dead period end.

At the QB position, one where logic says programs should take at least one every cycle, the Vols find themselves in the top groupings for two high-end talents.  Top 100 overall player Kaidon Salter released a Top 11, with the chatter being that the Vols are right at the top of his list along with Auburn.  Longtime target Christian Veilleux (another Osovet guy!), who has been to Knoxville multiple times, released a Top 4 of Tennessee, Clemson, Penn State and Duke.  The Vols probably could have had Veilleux’s commitment had they pushed in the January/February time period, but since then Clemson has come through with an offer after a campus visit and PSU and The Fightin’ Cuts have also made their moves.  There is an ongoing debate as to whether Tennessee should eschew signing a QB in 2021 and instead go 100% balls to the wall for instate 2022 phenom Ty Simpson, leaving themselves the opportunity to go get a graduate transfer QB for 2021 should the need exist.  That’s a subject for another time, but it does seem like the Vols would take Salter right now and at the same time that they continue to evaluate Veilleux and hope that his timeline is such that they have an opportunity to push before he makes a decision.

The Vols have also made themselves very big factors for two(!) 5-star players from the Sunshine State.  ILB Terrence Lewis released a Top 6 that included the Vols along with Texas A&M, LSU, Alabama, Penn State and Nebraska.  Importantly, the Florida native doesn’t have any of the Big 3 homestate schools, including Florida where he used to be committed.  The thought is that Texas A&M is his leader at the moment, but at the same time the Vols are believed to be nipping at the heels for the elite defender.  Although Florida is thought to be the leader for fellow 5-star Leonard Taylor, 247 Sports named Tennessee as “a darkhorse of sorts” in the DL’s recruitment, with UGA is a factor as well.  Considering Taylor has yet to visit Knoxville, in contrast to a game visit along with a spring trip to Gainesville, the fact that a) he hasn’t committed to UF yet, and b) the Vols are so deeply involved speaks volumes.  Landing either of these superstar prospects out of Florida would be a major coup for the Vols, an step up even from landing 4-star OLB Morven Joseph over the Gators and Florida State in the 2020 class. 

With the March commitment of RB Jaylen Wright from Durham, NC, the Vols still have a desire to land one more RB in the class.  And while the Vols are very much in it for bigtime RBs like Cody Brown and Lovasea Carroll, Tennessee has made a big recent move for Tiyon Evans, the #1 JUCO RB in the country.  Originally from Hartsville, SC, Evans is thought by some (mainly Gamecock fans) to be a shoe-in to land in Columbia now that he has an offer from his hometown school.  However, new Tennessee RB Coach Jay Graham has the Vols very much in play here.  With relationships in Carolina after a stint as the RB Coach for Steve Spurrier in Columbia as well as his overall reputation as a recruiter, Graham has developed a close bond with Evans that will have the Vols in play until the end.  Oh, guess who else is helping tag team with Graham in this recruitment…none other than Joe Osovet, who’s using his experience as a former JUCO Head Coach to relate to Evans.

Lastly, a random note to tuck away: Although many consider Penn State (where he’s a legacy) and Clemson to be the favorites for 5-star OL Nolan Rucci, the Vols made a huge impression when he visited Knoxville in March.  Importantly, along with being a first round NFL draft pick, etc, Rucci wants to be an aerospace engineer.  Vols fans of course know the story and career of all time great QB Josh Dobbs and his success in Tennessee’s aerospace engineering program.  As we made the case over a year ago for Rick Barnes’s program, it seems like a no-brainer to leverage Dobbs’ experience as the highest profile athlete on campus who also excelled in this very specific program that Rucci would be a part of.  Hopefully that’s a massive part of the sell for Pruitt and Tennessee and hopefully it resonates with the kind of franchise OT that not only would be a cornerstone for the Vols’ 2021 class but also the next generation of future NFL OL that Pruitt and OL Coach Will Friend have brought into the program.