Tennessee Football: Improved recruiting is the crystal key

Tennessee football improved in 2021 and looks to take another step in 2022. Improved recruiting will be the key to competing for titles.

As we inch toward the 2022 college football season, there is a manifest energy in East Tennessee regarding the 2022 Tennessee Volunteers football team. After climbing out of the losing season ditch of the prior four years, the 2021 Josh Heupel-led version of the Vols went (7-5) and lost a barn-burner against a decent Purdue team in the Music City Bowl. Vol Nation is pregnant with expectation that their Vols will “take that next step”. For that to happen, continued improvement in recruiting will have to be evident and pronounced.

As a college football radio host, a scribe for this place and others, and frankly, as a fan, recruiting rankings is always a topic de jure. That conversation can, at the same time, give one fan bragging rights over another, without a game being played, and also point to future domination and prestige. It is the ultimate fan conversation. My team was ranked 12th and your team was ranked 15th, therefore my team is better than yours, and my coaches are better than yours.

But like with any other ranking system, or any other data set, you have to dig into the numbers to get the real picture. Well, you don’t have to, but for truer and deeper understanding, it helps.

In fact, with regards to college football recruiting, there are two axioms this writer has found to be concrete indicators of future success: Average player rating and class ranking.

However, not the class ranking most bring to mind.