Tennessee is well on its way to a highly-rated recruiting class in 2023. The Vols have hauled in four prospects over the past three weeks and currently sit at No. 5 in the country, per Rivals. The month of April has been a good one for Josh Heupel as he and the staff hope to ride the momentum into the summer months.

One of Tennessee’s first commits of the current cycle was three-star offensive lineman Ayden Bussell. The Mount Juliet standout is a key piece in this class, both on the field and off. The direction the class is heading has the Volunteer State native in good spirits.

“I’m extremely proud, to say the least. We’re all pretty close,” Bussell said of the class. “We text in our group chat just about every day to see how we each other is doing. I couldn’t be happier with how things are going. We are rated really highly, and I only think it’s going to go up.

“Once we brought in Nico, that helped tremendously. And bringing in Sylvester [Smith], Caleb [Hering] and Ethan [Davis] – those are all four stars – and other high-level recruits. It looks really good and it brings in other people. The attraction is already getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Who is going to join next? That’s what we are looking for, but I think it could be someone pretty big.”

Tennessee’s 2023 recruiting class already sports nine commitments. Maybe even more impressive is the fact that five are from the home state. Heupel, though working against the grain in 2022, only brought in two in-state prospects last cycle. That’s changed in a major way this year.

“For a long time, you haven’t really seen Tennessee winning the state for big recruits. But now we’ve got multiple guys who are in the top-10 or top-15 for in-state recruits,” the lineman said. “We are getting them now. It’s the guys we want and the coaches have hand-picked these guys. They are actually getting to pick and choose who they want at this point and that’s what we really need.”

For guys like Bussell, the role has changed. They are [mostly] done with visits. They aren’t fielding calls from several other programs like they normally would when they were uncommitted. And now, they have taken on the role of ‘recruiter’ to help add more to the class.

“That’s the thing about going from being the recruit to the recruiter, there’s a whole other side of it,” the Mount Juliet star said. “You’ve got to learn how to do it. You learn while you’re in the process of being recruited but talking to coaches and then talking to players – it’s way different.”

Bussell has been hard at work trying to bring other offensive linemen into the class. The commit says he reaches out to targets a couple of times a week and makes sure to spend time with them at recruiting events on campus.

Brycen Sanders, Wilkin Formby, Lucas Simmons and Shamurad Umarov are just a few of the prospects Bussell has been in talks with.

“You’re really just trying to establish your relationship with the guys,” the commit said. “Getting to meet them in person on visits is the biggest thing. It’s just about building relationships with them and allowing them to see what Tennessee has to offer from people who are going to be there.”

Still, the Tennessee offensive line commit is finding the time to work on himself. This spring has been an important time in his development with spring practice right around the corner.

“Last year when I was playing, I was around 280-285. Right now, I’m sitting at 300 pounds,” Bussell said. “I had just reached the 1,000-pound club last year [in the weight room], but now my total is at 1,110 pounds. I squatted 535 pounds and am power cleaning about 275 pounds right now.

“I’ve really been working on controlling the weight rather than racking up a ton of weight. I’ve been focusing on individual muscles more than anything.

And when it’s time to finally hit the gridiron for spring drills, the rising senior has an attacking mentality.

“My goals for spring practice will be to hone in on all the little things. I really want to take this time – this spring going into summer – to focus on keeping my shoulders square on run blocks and positioning,” the high school veteran said. “I’ve already got everything down in terms of size and speed, so now it’s time to make sure all the little things are working together.”

As Tennessee’s 2023 recruiting class continues to grow, commits such as Ayden Bussell will play a vital role.