The college football Early Signing Period starts on Wednesday, and Tennessee will look to make official a good portion of its top 15 nationally ranked class.

Recruiting is where teams win or lose at the end of the day. The Volunteers have put together a strong list of commitments and are still battling to flip players from other schools to boot. The 2023 group has the makings of the best recruiting class the Vols have put together in some time, a great sign heading into Year 3 of the Josh Heupel Era.

Let’s take a look at what Heupel and Co. have been putting together on Rocky Top ahead of the Early Signing Period:

Highest-rated player: Nico Iamaleava, QB, 5-star

It doesn’t matter if you follow recruiting or you don’t. Just about every Tennessee fan has at least heard Iamaleava’s name (pronounced Ee-uh-ma-LAY-AH-va) since he committed to the Vols all the way back in March.

Iamaleava is the No. 2 player from the state of California, the No. 3 quarterback in the Class of 2023 and the No. 4 player in the cycle. He’s Tennessee’s 4th-highest-rated commit in program history behind only Bryce Brown, Eric Berry and Khalil McKenzie.

He also makes Tennessee one of 5 schools to gain a commitment from a 5-star QB in the 2023 cycle, joining Texas (Arch Manning), USC (Malachi Nelson), UCLA (Dante Moore, previously Oregon) and Oklahoma (Jackson Arnold).

Did Tennessee bolster its QB room?

Do the Vols wear orange?

Anyone who read the above would know that answer is a resounding yes. The Vols not only have their QB of the future in Iamaleava but also have a commitment from the No. 1-rated QB commit for Tennessee football dating back to at least 1999, since 247Sports starting tracking commitments.

And he has already been getting work in on the practice field, having signed his LOI (not NLI, yet) to enroll early on Dec. 10. Here’s a picture of Joe Milton showing Iamaleava around the facilities.

Heupel can turn just about any QB you give him into a strong starter. It’s pretty exciting to ponder what he could do with a natural talent like Iamaleava.

Best position group: Defensive line

One of the latest additions to Tennessee’s class was also one of its best, with high-end 4-star DL Daevin Hobbs committing to the Vols over Georgia and Alabama in November. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Tennessee’s defensive line and pass rushing recruits are dangerous. Three of the top 4 recruits in the class will line up on the line with Hobbs and the edge rushing duo of Chandavian Bradley and Caleb Herring (both top 75 prospects nationally).

Tyree Weathersby, a 4-star, and 3-star Nathan Robinson complete a very solid group of players.

Biggest need filled: Secondary

The best group of Tennessee’s 2023 class is easily the defensive line, but the secondary fills the biggest need. Tennessee scored commitments from 6 defensive backs in this class, with the highest rated being 4-star cornerbacks Jordan Matthews and Rickey Gibson. Sylvester Smith was another big-time addition, but he decommitted from the Vols last Saturday night.

The remaining commits are some very hard-hitting 3-star guys, namely Jack Luttrell and John Slaughter. Cristian Conyer, who chose the Vols over his home-state school Kentucky, rounds out the group.

There are no fancy 5-stars or high-end 4-stars, but the last time Tennessee signed at least 2 4-star defensive backs in the same class was 2019. Heupel saw what his team needed and decided to fix the problem. That’s a promising sign for Tennessee football moving forward.

Biggest potential flip

Truth be told, there isn’t a single commit who has shown signs he will be decommitting from Tennessee’s strong class before Wednesday. That’s what happens when you have a 10-win season, a coach who players want to suit up for and the most momentum the program has seen in 20 years. But that also seemed to be the case before Smith decommitted last week.

If you had to pick 1 player, 4-star linebacker Jalen Smith may be an option to flip. The Vols just added a commitment from 4-star linebacker Arion Carter and already had promising 3-star Jerimiah Telander locked in before Smith committed in mid-July.

But, as mentioned earlier, don’t expect it from anyone in this class. Instead, be on the lookout for the Vols to add a couple JUCO transfers in offensive lineman Keyshawn Blackstock (who put Tennessee in his top 5 last Wednesday) and defensive lineman Elijah Davis.

Final takeaways on the class

When all is said and done, the Vols’ 2023 class will finalize around top 10-15 nationally. That’s impressive, but what is more impressive is Tennessee’s ability to fill areas of need with those high-caliber players.

Fourteen of Tennessee’s 25 hard commits in the Class of 2023 are defensive players. As stated earlier, this will be Tennessee’s best secondary group since at least 2016, and it could not have come at a better time. Notwithstanding, an undervalued part of Tennessee’s class is its strong set of linebackers, a group that rounded into form with the addition of Carter, a native of Smyrna, Tennessee.

Speaking of, what is also impressive about this year’s class is the amount of work the Vols have done to keep instate talent orange. Tennessee earned commitments from the No. 1, 2, 16, 22 and 24 players in the state of Tennessee. For reference, the Vols retained commitments from just 2 of the Volunteer State’s top 25 recruits in the last cycle.

And all this talk about defense shouldn’t concern those wanting to see Tennessee’s high-octane offense remain intact. Iamaleava has 2 top receiver targets in 4-star Cameron Seldon and 4-star Nathan Leacock, a 4-star tight end commit in Ethan Davis and a mammoth in the trenches in 4-star OT Shamurad Umarov ready to sign very soon.

Tennessee was missing a running back in its 2023 class until it flipped former Kentucky commit Khalifa Keith in late November. Former Coastal Carolina commit DeSean Bishop, a 3-star RB out of Knoxville who had eyes on Tennessee, could potentially be added to that room. Bishop decommitted from the Chanticleers in early December when head coach Jamey Chadwell took the vacant Liberty job.