Tennessee Football: Is Jeremy Pruitt’s recruiting hype here to stay?

Tennessee football has received 11 verbal commitments in 15 days. Does the early recruiting hype match reality for the Volunteers?

As coronavirus clouds began parting ever so briefly in late April and the Tennessee Valley weather started to heat, so too did the Tennessee football recruiting machine.

With serious questions about whether the 2020 season would even happen floating around like a menacing virus, in less than a month, Jeremy Pruitt and Co. had 14 high school student-athletes verbally commit to play football and attend school at Tennessee in 2021.

The May hype is there, but is it sustainable?

Getting 14 verbal commits in a month will drive eyes and get attention every time. Getting 11 commits in 15 calendar days is almost unheard of outside of the normal signing periods of late December and early February. Even for those like me who view college football recruiting rankings in May as akin to a NASCAR race after 30 laps or driving accuracy after two holes, i.e. not all that determinate of anything, it’s still eye-opening.

Still, one mustn’t always take things at face value when talking football recruiting. There is nuance and gradation in the fine art of convincing 17-year-old kids, and their parents, to come play football for you. Especially, when you are a full six months away from them being able to ink a commitment.

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Using the 247Sports’ composite ranking system (the gold standard for such things), the Vols currently sit ranked No. 2 in the nation in recruiting with a whopping 24 kids committed, and with an average player rating of .8973. A class is only comprised of 25 students total. One might surmise from that information that the Vols’ 2021 class is almost full. Not exactly.

As mentioned, even the most ardent and “committed” of these commits can’t sign until December 16, 2020. History shows that there will be some attrition, whether from the side of the school or the player and family. Happens every year, in every class, at every school, in every conference. Most may wind up in Knoxville, but history says not all.

But that brings us back to the original question: Is this recruiting hype sustainable? As impressive as this month has been, should we even care this early? Does it even matter? My answer: Yes and no.

It does matter when you look at Tennessee football’s recent history. “Big Orange” has a losing record over the last decade and Pruitt was hired coming off of a 4-8 season just three years ago. Were it not for a fantastic mid-season turnaround last year, this would be a different article. So, in context, for Tennessee, and the SEC East, it does matter. A great deal.

Tennessee football’s arms race with Florida

I wrote in this space last year that Tennessee was entering an “arms race” with Florida in recruiting and that last year was the first of what would be many heavily contested recruiting cycles between the two schools. And 247Sports’ own Thomas Goldkamp tried to drag me a little for it, but I’m proved right, I think.

Let’s be real here, though. As currently comprised, and for all the May recruiting chest-thumping that some fans have done, this isn’t a championship class. I refer you to the average player rating. In fact, even if this class sticks, it would have finished 11th nationally last year in 2020. Tennessee actually did finish 10th nationally in 2020. Nice, but not much different.

So, while not championship level, this 2021 Tennessee football recruiting class is “closing the talent gap” with Florida, which is a huge step in trying re-enter SEC East relevance after two decades of wilderness. So, is the hype sustainable? Yes and no. Yes, 11 recruits in 15 days is impressive and these types of classes will even the talent landscapes in Knoxville and Gainesville.

But, trash talking and chest-thumping about what very well might be a middling SEC recruiting class six months from now, and being six months out from getting a 17-year-old to sign, seems foolish and stupid. I mean, you can act like Bugs Bunny in that race against the tortoise, if you want, but you’re kind of missing part of the point of that cartoon.

As Brandon Sanderson wrote in The Way of Kings , “Expectations were like fine pottery. The harder you held them, the more likely they were to crack.”

While fairly impressive, let’s not run away with expectations just yet for this 2021 Tennessee recruiting class.