Brian Niedermeyer has developed quite a reputation recently as a top-notch recruiter.

The Tennessee assistant is set to start his second season in Knoxville as the tight ends coach. Niedermeyer has been named National Recruiter of the Year in February by 247Sports and ESPN. He moved with Jeremy Pruitt to Tennessee after he worked with Pruitt at Alabama and Georgia.

“Well, I think No. 1, he’s young,” Pruitt said at a press conference on Tuesday. “He’s not married, so what else does he have to do? It’s not like he has a wife to go home to or any kids to go home to. So he recruits all the time. He builds relationships with the players we’re recruiting. I think he’s very personable. He’s real. He’s a guy that kind of stays on people and he uses the resources that we have here.”

But Pruitt added that Niedermeyer is more than a recruiter.

“He’s a good coach, too,” Pruitt said. “Lot of people don’t appreciate how good of a coach he is. He does a really good job. He can coach any side of the ball. On defense, that’s what he was always was for us (at Alabama), a defensive (graduate assistant). But he’s a very intelligent guy and it really comes easy to him.”

A former collegiate tight end, Niedermeyer served as the assistant director of recruiting operations with the Crimson Tide in 2017 after his role as a defensive graduate assistant in 2016.

He also was a defensive graduate assistant coach at Georgia in 2015.

Niedermeyer played tight end at Arkansas-Pine Bluff.