A big week on the recruiting trail boosted Tennessee’s 2021 class to No. 1 in the SEC and No. 3 nationally on the 247Sports Composite.

“It’s been a good week,” Volunteers head coach Jeremy Pruitt told FOX Sports Knoxville’s “The Drive” on Friday. “Our kids are taking finals right now and finishing up the semester. We can’t really do any football right now, so we’re really trying to focus on recruiting, and everybody in our organization is doing a really nice job with that.”

While some think that it’s important to have young assistants who relate better to high school players, Pruitt doesn’t see age as a factor.

“No, I don’t think age has anything to do with recruiting,” Pruitt said. “I think having a good plan, working together, doing a nice job in the evaluating process.

“We’ve obviously had some unusual circumstances over the last four to six weeks here, and I feel like we’ve had a good plan with it and our guys have done a nice job building relationships. And we’ve got to continue to do that.”

When asked about Vols players taking an active role in recruiting, Pruitt was quick to give credit.

“I believe it goes back to our players and the guys that they help recruit,” the third-year head coach said. “The guys we have on our team right now, they want to be the best that they can possibly be, and they work hard at it. They work hard in the classroom. They work hard on the field, in the weight room, and they do in recruiting.

“They know who they want to play beside, and the better players you have on the team, the better opportunity you have as a team and as an individual. So these guys are bought into that, and they’re working hard to help recruit the best student-athletes to Tennessee.”

It certainly appears to be an exciting time on Rocky Top. There’s no better example of a team’s “buy-in” than players taking recruiting into their own hands.

[H/T GoVols247]