Tennessee football recruiting: Vols still have lots of work to do

Tennessee football recruiting picked up three commitments for 2018 over the weekend. However, Butch Jones and the Volunteers still have lots of work to do.

According to Scout, Tennessee football picked up three four-stars. According to 247Sports, they only picked up one. But on Rivals, they picked up none.

Still, the weekend was enough for all three services to rank Tennessee football’s recruiting class at No. 5 when Monday morning rolled around.

But all it did was help Butch Jones shore up depth. And he used three-star Georgia prospects to do it if you go by Rivals.

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You can never have enough depth at defensive line, which is why flipping defensive end Jamarcus Chatman from the LSU Tigers was huge.

And the running back situation was questionable, so getting two all-purpose backs in Lyn-J Dixon and Anthony Grant is very helpful.

But it’s time for the Vols fry the big fish now. With 15 commitments, including a five-star and six four-stars on Rivals and 247 but just eight four-stars on Scout, the Vols are in a solid position.

Now they need to go in for the kill.

According to Rivals, there are still three in-state four-stars to get in defensive end Greg Emerson, defensive back Jaylon King, and offensive lineman Jerome Carvin.

Considering what happened last year, Butch Jones can’t let any of them get away. Of those, Emerson is the prized bull and the most elite prospect.

And the 247Sports Crystal Ball suggest he’s a lock to go to Knoxville.

However, Jones has work to do on King and Carvin, both of whom the Crystal Ball is favoring to go elsewhere: the Vanderbilt Commodores and Alabama Crimson Tide respectively.

Right now, Jones has got five of the Top 12 recruits for 2018. All of them are four and five-stars. However, he needs to get more than half, and to show that the Vols own the state, he needs to get all three of the guys we just named.

After all, if you’re the only elite institution in a state, you should get two-thirds of the top recruits there.

But on top of that, Jones still has work to do. That only gets him to 18 recruits. With the ability to sign from 25 to 30, he still needs to go national.

Next: 10 Vols who need their jersey numbers retired

So yes, this was a good weekend for Jones to secure some needs for Tennessee football. Now, he and his staff need to go for the splash.

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Tennessee football: Despite weekend recruiting success, Vols still have lots of work to do

By Caleb Calhoun | Jun 26, 2017

Tennessee football recruiting picked up three commitments for 2018 over the weekend. However, Butch Jones and the Volunteers still have lots of work to do.