Grading the SEC's recruiting situations: Tennessee Volunteers
In the coming weeks, SDS will grade each team’s current state of recruiting based upon the factors listed below. Today we continue the series with one of the SEC’s recent recruiting titans, the Tennessee Vols.
TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS
HOME-STATE TALENT: C-
In a five-year window from 2011-15, the state of Tennessee produced 1 five-star prospect and 36 four-star prospects from the high school ranks. A few of the top players — Cameron Clear, Jovon Robinson — did not flourish at their initial schools. But prep talent from The Volunteer State has surged a bit in recent years, producing talents like Florida State safety Jalen Ramsey and current UT standouts like Jalen Reeves-Maybin, Jalen Hurd and Derek Barnett.
RECENT SUCCESS: A-
Butch Jones built two Top 10 recruiting classes in his first full cycles — on the back of the mess formerly known as coach Derek Dooley. There may be a coach or two in the SEC or nationally who has done as well marketing their respective programs, but no one has done it better than Jones in the last few years. The only catch? The Vols were able to sell immediate, meaningful playing time to just about any decent recruit. Tennessee built those classes on quantity, nabbing just one five-star recruit (and 62 commitments overall) while seizing the nation’s No. 7 and No. 4 classes. Jones and the staff will have to be more selective going forward. They can sell a program that’s in a much better place, but early playing time should be sparse even for elite recruits.
FAN SATISFACTION: A
Jones took an embarrassment of a 2012 team — we’re talking a 41-18 loss to Vanderbilt and a 1-7 SEC record — and restored it to 7-6 with a nice TaxSlayer Bowl win in just two seasons. He’s managed to restore pride and a deep sense of tradition to the team’s fan base. The trajectory of the Vols under his leadership has been as good as a fan could hope for to this point. Jones needs to keep UT ahead of the Florida Gators, since he’s got a two-year head start on Jim McElwain, and leapfrog Mizzou. If he wants to keep the fan base satisfied in a down SEC East, he needs to continue to improve in 2015 (9 or 10 wins?) and then compete for a division and overall SEC championship in ’16.
COACHING STABILITY: B+
All signs point to continued improvement, and Team 119 should be even more exciting and entertaining than last year’s bunch. Dooley left Tennessee’s roster a disaster. This was no two-year fix. Still, Jones enters the season with a 12-13 record in Knoxville. Until he turns what we all think we know about the ’15 and ’16 teams into a reality, he still has something to prove. Do that, and the B+ here creeps higher. The converse also is true.
SUM IT UP: The Volunteers’ roster is in a much better situation than it was three years ago. The program’s streak of 51 consecutive years with at least one NFL draft pick has ended, but it could be a long, long time before Tennessee gets shut out again. There are several All-SEC type talents scattered throughout this roster. But the team remains thin at several positions, which is almost a death knell for serious SEC contenders. Jones has jump-started the team’s recruiting and fan base. That trend is well and good. It needs to continue. But it’s just about time for Tennessee to take all those good vibes and turn it into nationally-respectable production.
Editor’s note: Any reference to recruiting ratings in this series – team or individual – are to 247Sports.com’s industry composite ranking.
At the end of the series we will rank the SEC’s recruiting situations from 1-14 based on the grades we assign each program. Here are last year’s recruiting situation rankings:
