Tennessee currently sits 11 commitments for the 2022 class. There have been some nice additions and some tough misses in the nearly six months Josh Heupel has been on the job. Here are three observations, two questions and one prediction about the past, current and future of this recruiting cycle.
Three Observations
1. — The NCAA investigation isn’t the only thing to hurt Tennessee in the 2022 cycle. Tennessee has also been hurt by the late nature of the coaching change. Yes, Heupel and company have had six months to develop something with recruits but most of this staff wasn’t recruiting players in the Tennessee footprint in this cycle. A portion of the staff didn’t get here until mid to late February, whereas Auburn’s staff which also made.a later than normal change had a full month if not more of time to recruit. Tennessee has had a nice run of success in Florida with three commitments, but the success within a four hour circle around Knoxville hasn’t been there. Is that all Tennessee’s fault? Absolutely not as some of the players had longstanding relationships with other schools and when you couple that with no games played and the unknown of the investigation, it’s been a perfect storm to hurt recruiting.
2. — Tennessee has done a really nice job of recruiting the offensive line. Florida prospect Brian Grant was the first to commit and was a bit of an unknown when he did. Since then, he has been impressive. At the FSU mega camp the Seminoles and others took notice. Grant followed that up with an impressive personal workout last month at Tennessee. Tennessee trusted their eyes and evaluation with Masai Reddick and then found success through relationships with Mo Clipper. With 4-star Addison Nichols set to come off the board in the next few weeks, Glen Elarbee may have an impressive core group to build upon in the coming years.
3. — The lack of momentum inside the checkerboard borders. As I mentioned on the General’s Quarters, the Tennessee takeover is more marketing than it is reality. They were never going to clean up instate with the 2022 class with all the circumstances going on around the program. Nobody can “put a wall around the state” but you have to be a factor in the state. Again, not all the staffs fault as some kids never let them truly in the game and others were a bit over-ranked and over-recruited in my opinion but some wounds have been self-inflicted. Tennessee could never truly make their mind up on Jaylen Lewis and Anthony Brown. Both of whom are likely to end up in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Is that a loss or a blow? Only time will tell. Then there was a group featuring Ty Simpson, Dallan Hayden, Fisher Anderson, Barion Brown and others who never made it to campus before committing or have yet to visit Heupel and company. Much was made of Jeremy Pruitt not going after Lance Wilhoit, Adonis Otey and Woodi Washington in the 2019 cycle, but only Washington has found real playing time. On the flip side, there have been all conference performers and key contributors on the rosters of Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina, Clemson, Ohio State, LSU, Georgia, Texas A&M and others that are natives of the Volunteer state in the last handful of years. When looking at the Rivals state rankings, there will be 30+ players who sign with power-5 schools in 2022. Are they all players that could wear orange? No, but Tennessee looks like they will sign between 2 and 4 players from this state in this cycle if things hold to their current form. Like sands through the hourglass, time will be the indicator on how the marginal success instate impacts Tennessee’s program over the next couple of years. Rocky Top has always recruited either nationally or regionally because you can’t sign a class of only instate kids. BUT…., history also tells us the best Tennessee teams have had a nucleus of homegrown talent. Currently Tennessee isn’t the cool school for in-state kids so Heupel will have to find a way to change that.
Two Questions
1.— Can success on the field this fall help Tennessee in recruiting?
Winning cures all…correct? I do think they will either pull someone of real value or flip someone they previously wanted if they can show improvement and the ability to be competitive this fall. Tennessee hasn’t really doubled back to any of the instate kids that chose to commit elsewhere to this point. Are they waiting to do so until they show something on the field? It’s certainly possible.
2. — How much does the play of transfers this fall impact the recruiting strategy going forward?
Tennessee has added double digit transfers from the transfer portal over the last several months. There is no doubt that every school is going to leave some roster spots open going forward because the portal does offer some opportunities to improve in weak areas really fast. But specifically for Tennessee, if their new experienced additions show well this fall, it may fuel a movement to look in that direction for most of the remaining spots in the 2022 class. It could allow a program like Tennessee to build back faster than waiting on prep talent to develop.
One Prediction
1. — Tayven Jackson continues to have an impact on this class. The Indiana quarterback has worked the recruiting scene and I expect him to do so this fall. He has a certain ‘it’ factor to him and others gravitate toward his personality. He and Cam Miller have hit it off well and he talks to Nichols a good bit. He obviously is recruiting his teammate Caden Curry really hard. I think Jackson does enough to get Tennessee an official visit in the fall from Curry. One of Josh Dobbs really great traits was bonding with his teammates. Jackson has shown an ability to do that even when interacting with players at the Elite 11, much less players that will be on his own team.
