Gameday on Rocky Top

After the departure of upperclassmen Will Ignot and Shannon Reid via the transfer portal, followed by the dismissal of promising Sophomore RB-turned-LB Jeremy Banks – all within the span of the last two weeks – Tennessee now finds itself with a shocking lack of depth at Inside Linebacker.  To illustrate the point, starters Daniel Bituli (a senior who by definition won’t be returning next season) and Henry To’oto’to took every single one of the snaps against Georgia this past Saturday night, as little-used backups JJ Peterson (RSFr), Solon Page (RSSo) and Aaron Beasley (True Fr) were deemed to be unready by the staff.  As it pertains to the rest of the season, Coach Jeremy Pruitt and Defensive Coordinator Derrick Ansley will have to simultaneously get those three backups up to speed as much as possible in order for them to be able to hold up for even just a few plays a game while also finding some answers from other positions.  As for the latter, True Freshman Quarvaris Crouch, who practiced inside during the spring before being moved to OLB/DE this season – with some limited success – is the most likely option.  And that could very well be a strong solution both in the near and short term, as Crouch has unlimited potential regardless of where he lines up and frankly is built much more to play ILB than to play on the outside.  Peterson is a former borderline 5-star prospect who despite getting off the a rough start still very much has the belief of the coaching staff.  Were he to take a step as the season progresses that would be big news both immediately and for the future.  Regardless, when it comes to future roster building, the bottom line is that Tennessee is in dire need of LBs in the class of 2020, and ideally will sign multiple prospects who can step in and play right away in 2020.

To that end, the Vols have massively increased their efforts with the three 4-star LBs from Memphis’s Whitehaven HS: Bryson Eason, Martavius French (committed to Arkansas), and Tammarion McDonald (committed to Mississippi State).  The trio took their official visits to Tennessee this past weekend for the UGA game and by all accounts the Vols made a major move with each of them.  Interestingly, they each have very different body types and theoretically project to different spots on the defense, with Eason more of a pure ILB, French potentially a 3-4 DE, and McDonald (the lighter of the three) as a Nickel LB or even SS.  The Vols could use all the talent that all three possess, but it should be noted that landing them doesn’t cure all of what ails the Vols at the LB spot by itself. 

Tennessee is also still actively recruiting two longtime LB targets in Len’Neth Whitehead and Noah Sewell, but despite heading into the season as the presumed leader for Whitehead and as strong contender for Sewell, the Vols seem to have faded with both.  Whitehead, who took his OV to Tennessee for the season opening debacle against Georgia State, has been trending to South Carolina for the past few weeks after attending their moral victory 24-point loss to Alabama and then MASSIVE win over a Kentucky team whose Quarterback was playing with one arm.  He’s taking an OV to Wisconsin this weekend, which could theoretically throw a wrench in his recruitment since they are a) a very, very good program, and b) recruiting him solely as a RB and have quite the history to point to.  Assuming however that distance and relative familiarity end of working against the Badgers this will come down to the Vols and the Gamecocks, and if the Vols want to retake the lead here they’ll likely need to get him back to campus before he announces.  Whitehead is an incredibly athletic prospect with very good speed to go with plus-size, and despite a general lack of interest from hometown Georgia is a tremendous prospect who would likely get a lot of immediate playing time if he signed with Tennessee.  Sewell is a physical marvel who moves like a 225-pound LB despite being closer to 270 pounds.  After a very good unofficial visit to Knoxville over the summer the Vols had placed themselves in a position to be in his recruitment to the end along with Oregon, where his brother plays, and Georgia.  However, the 5-star perhaps has soured on Tennessee since the season began and now the Vols are just fighting to get an official visit.  Right now he appears to be a longshot, but perhaps with a strong rest of the season and persistence from recruiter extraordinaire Brian Niedermeyer Tennessee can keep itself in the mix.

A LB prospect who hasn’t yet been mentioned with Tennessee the #1 JUCO LB in the country in Tyrus Wheat.  He’s a Mississippi State commitment from Amite, LA who took an OV to South Carolina and also had an Auburn offer before he committed to the Bulldogs over the summer.  To be clear, there is no public indication that there is interest on either side, let alone mutual, but Tennessee will absolutely need immediate help at the position and this would be the ideal situation to add a JUCO player.  If the Joe Moorhead to Rutgers come to fruition all bets will be off with Mississippi State’s commitment, so it would behoove Tennessee to at least try to stay on Wheat’s radar should they opportunity to poach present itself. 

Finally, an incredibly intriguing option is Ole Miss commitment De’rickey Wright.  Wright is a former Alabama commitment from Gadsden who flipped to Ole Miss in June.  Featured in a 247Sports article titled “Five Potential Freaks in Alabama’s Class,” he’s listed at 6’4, 220 with a +10-inch wingspan.  He’s played all over the field in his high school career, collecting TFLs, sacks, forced fumbles and lots of INTS and touchdowns – 10 and 20, respectively, last season alone.  He competed as a DB at a handful of summer combines and more than held his own, showing his functional athleticism. He’s also a high-academic prospect (don’t let the Ole Miss commitment fool you) who has offers from the likes of Duke, Notre Dame, UVA and Vanderbilt.  Importantly, he’s been to Knoxville at least three times, including being a visitor for two of Tennessee’s home games this season – returning for the electric atmosphere this past weekend vs. UGA despite being in the house for the Georgia State catastrophe.  Ole Miss is recruiting him as a Safety, and apparently the Vols like him on offense – sort of recruiting him like they were with Dee Beckwith as a Jumbo Pass-catcher.  But, very notably, Alabama was recruiting him as a LB, projecting that upon getting into a bigtime S&C program he’d outgrow the defensive backfield.  Like the Whitehaven prospects, though, Wright is simply a guy with the kind of athleticism and measurables – and production to go with it – that Tennessee needs more of even if he either a) isn’t ready to contribute at LB immediately or b) ends up at a different position.  He’s a guy who, especially with his very clear interest in the Vols, the staff should be going all-in for.

Tennessee has clear needs at just about every position on the roster.  There simply isn’t enough talent or depth necessary to compete.  However, at ILB in particular the need is not just for quality but also for quantity.  The Vols are making moves to address that to a certain degree with the potential of Crouch from OLB to ILB as well as the new laser focus on the Whitehaven kids.  However, they likely need more than just them, and fortunately there are still options out there.

When looking at Tennessee’s current commitment list as well as the realistic targets on the board as of early October, what stands out is how heavily tilted towards the defensive side of the ball those lists in total are. Four of the top five commitments (of 14 in total) as ranked by 247Sports are defensive players, and, importantly, it is isn’t so difficult to find upwards of 8-10 realistic and high quality targets that the Vols could close with on defense, each of whom would upgrade their respective positions. 

On the flip side, as deficient at Tennessee’s roster is when compared to top flight SEC teams overall, what always stands out to the naked eye is the lack of dynamic playmaker the Vols have on offense.  Yes, Tennessee has a nice corps of WRs, but not only are a large portion of them seniors but also none of them are true gamebreakers.  Similarly, Tennessee’s RB room includes some good talent, but only Eric Gray is a) young, and b) realistically has gamebreaking potential.  One could argue Ty Chandler does too, but in the end he’s just not the kind of RB who is going to take over a game, and he’s also set to enter his final season in 2020.  When it comes to Tennessee’s 2020 recruiting class, there is some good news and some bad news when it comes to addressing this dearth of playmakers.  The good news starts with UT’s commitment from one of the top QBs in the country in Harrison Bailey, who projects  as the kind of triggerman that just makes an entire offense run and look better.  Further, the Vols also have commitments from three really good looking WR/ATH prospects.  Jalin Hyatt is a track star whose senior film is so strong that Alabama has started sniffing around.  Similarly, Jimmy Calloway’s performance has drawn an offer from Oklahoma.  And while Darion Williamson – the most likely of the trio to be cataloged as an “Athlete” due to his large size at 6’3 and over 200 lbs – hasn’t received that kind of recruiting attention, he’s nevertheless clearly a top-shelf athlete with outstanding potential as a big WR with good-to-great speed.  At the same time, Tennessee is firmly in the mix for two 5-star WRs in Rakim Jarrett (an LSU commitment who is taking an Alabama OV this month) and Arik Gilbert (for whom the Vols could be fading but won’t give up on until someone else sees a fax come through).  dpriority4

However, it must be said that the Vols will definitely have to fight to hold onto Hyatt and perhaps to a larger extent Calloway – noted as such because Hyatt’s parents have been public about him being a firm commitment while Calloway has made public comments that he’s less than 100% committed and is interested in taking other visits, to OU and even UK, although his presence at the UGA was a good sign.  At the same time, not only are the Vols potentially fighting an uphill battle for the aforementioned Jarrett and Gilbert, who are elite talents for sure, but both of them are on the bigger side and could potentially end up a more similar than not to a guy like Josh Palmer that’s already on the roster – big and physical with some real speed but maybe not a true threat to turn a 5-yard out and make it into an 80-yard TD.  Hyatt and Calloway do look like those kinds of players, but put simply the Vols need more of them, both at the WR spot as well as at RB, where their one commitment Tee Hodge is much more of a bruiser (and a potentially very good one, at that, which is why Wisconsin still isn’t giving up on him).  Unfortunately Tennessee’s board just doesn’t have a ton of that kind of player on there right now. 

That said, there are some players who the Vols have been recruiting throughout the process but as of yet haven’t pressed for that they could and perhaps should circle back on.  Each of them are the kind of player described above, and although some of them are committed elsewhere the Vols could potentially reinsert themselves into the respective recruitments should they turn up the heat: 0

ATH Jimmy Holiday, from Madison Central HS in Mississippi, is a TCU commitment who the Tennessee staff circled back on during its bye week.  Holiday, who the Horn Frogs are recruiting as a QB, is ~6’0, 180 pounds who put up the 7^th best overall SPARQ score at a Nike Regional event over the summer that included over 300 other prospects, running a sub-4.4 40-yard dash.  What do you think of when you think about a TCU offense?  Smaller, shifty WRs who are borderline unguardable and very difficult to get down when they have the ball in space – Holiday fits that bill.  With the Vols theoretically in the market for a 2^nd QB in this class anyway, a multi-purpose player who could have a package as a freshman QB and also help as a WR could be what Tennessee is looking for.  Expect the Vols to try and get Holiday, who has expressed a willingness to take some trips, to Knoxville for an official visit before the December signing period

WR Khi Mathieu is a Memphis commitment from New Orleans who received a relatively early Vol offer but ultimately chose the Tigers over fellow AAC schools like local Tulane, etc, who were truly pushing at the time.  Matheiu, the cousin of the famous Honey Badger, is a very good athlete who’s less known for elite speed and more known for his leaping ability and balls skills both in the air and after the catch.  While Memphis may be a Group of Five program just a few years removed from being alternatively a complete afterthought and also a laughingstock, under Coach Mike Norvell they have produced some explosive offenses built around this kind of playmaker.  Notably, he hails from St Augustine HS, where current Vols RB Coach David Johnson was the head coach in the not-too-distant past – this connection is what drew the two parties together initially and what could, should the Vols choose, get them back in it. 

RB Michael Drennen II is a 4-star All-Purpose Back from Ohio who right now has Kentucky and Ohio State as his top two choices.  The 5’11, 200 pound prospect has played multiple positions during his high school career and is an explosive playmaker all over the field.  The Vols were in a smallish top group he named not too long ago but so far haven’t gotten much traction.  From this vantage point Tennessee’s best bet is to have the Buckeyes be unwilling to take him due to space constraints and then turn up the heat in order to beat out a perennial doormat in Kentucky. 

Other dynamic offensive prospects the Vols could still get (more) involved with include WR Dazalin Worsham, a former Alabama commitment; WR Kris Abrams-Draine, an Ole Miss commitment who at one time had the Vols as his leader before they slowed things down a bit; and RB Jahmry Gibbs from Dalton, GA who’s in the middle of a ridiculous senior season that has drawn attention from college football’s biggest players but who to-date hasn’t seen much interest from Tennessee.  Tennessee could also look to the JUCO ranks later in the cycle, and of course could also dip into the grad transfer market later on.  However they go about it, the Tennessee staff simply must upgrade its roster from a playmaker perspective, and enlarging its board of prospects is the first step towards making that happen. lsdpriority50