Tennessee may be starting training camp this week but before Jeremy Pruitt and company get to work on the practice field, they have some work to do on the recruiting trail.

The Volunteers have the orange carpet rolled out as five-star Sav’ell Smalls made his way down from Washington to visit Rocky Top this week. Smalls announced his arrival to Tennessee’s campus on Monday. The five-star prospect is rated as the nation’s No. 9 overall prospect and the No. 1 outside linebacker in the nation for the 2020 recruiting cycle by 247Sports Composite Rankings.

Leading up to this visit, Smalls was asked why Tennessee was so high on his list. The reason the five-star linebacker gave? Coach Pruitt.

“Coach Pruitt is here, he’s the head coach, and he’s the outside linebacker master,” Smalls said in a recent interview with Sports Star of Tomorrow. “He knows everything about defense, he’s a defensive guru and he really develops pass rushers like no other. That’s a big plus being the head coach — and Tennessee up and coming.”

Also helping Tennessee in this recruitment is the fact that Brian Niedermeyer is the lead recruiter for Small. Niedermeyer was honored as the nation’s best individual recruiter for the 2019 recruiting cycle by 247Sports. Not long after all his success on the recruiting trail, Niedermeyer was asked why he has so much success on the recruiting trail.

His answer? He gave all credit to Jeremy Pruitt.

There seems to be a theme here that should make Tennessee fans happy to know the program is in good hands on the recruiting front as long Pruitt is leading the Volunteers.