Tennessee football recruiting: Vols offer five major prospects within 24 hours

Tennessee football has continued to reshape its recruiting board under Jeremy Pruitt. The Volunteers offered five major players within 24 hours.

As Tennessee football head coach Jeremy Pruitt has been preparing the Alabama Crimson Tide for the College Football Playoff, he’s been active non-stop reshuffling the Vols’ recruiting board. And it really showed within a 24-hour span.

After picking up two commitments on Monday and the report that three-star quarterback and Cal commit J.T. Shrout would announce his decision later this week between the Golden Bears and the Vols, Tennessee football offered five more prospects, four of whom are for 2019. And all of them were key guys.

One offer was to a junior college prospect for 2018.

The two most unique but least touted ones came Monday night. The Vols offered three-star Alabama quarterback Paul Tyson. At 6’4″ 210 pounds, Tyson is a pro-style passer from Trussville, Ala. He announced the offer on Twitter.

That same night, Tennessee football offered three-star Texas junior college cornerback Benjie Franklin. Franklin is the only member who could commit to the 2018 class, and he announced the offer on Twitter.

Then, on Tuesday, Tennessee football went out targeting four-stars for 2019. The first offer was to four-star Oklahoma safety Daxton Hill. Hill, coming out of Booker T. Washington in Tulsa, announced the offer Tuesday morning.

Tennessee football followed that up with an offer to four-star Arizona athlete Jake Smith. Smith, standing at 6’0″ 185 pounds and out of Notre Dame Prep in Scottsdale, Ariz., announced the offer shortly after 3 p.m. Tuesday on Twitter.

And finally, later in the day, the Vols offered New Jersey offensive lineman Caedan Wallace. Wallace, at 6’4″ 320 pounds, comes from Princeton, N.J. and announced his offer in the early evening.

All of these offers are unique. Pruitt continues to go the junior college route to get immediate help for 2018, but after losing so many guys, it’s not like they can’t use another cornerback and a guy like Franklin.

Tyson would be a great pickup for the Vols at quarterback, and there’s a solid chance Pruitt’s connections to the state of Alabama help him there. If he could secure Shrout and Tyson for the next year, then Tennessee football is already in solid shape at quarterback to run the pro-style set he clearly wants to run.

All three Tuesday offers were national offers and would be splash pickups. We’ll have to track how it all goes, but it’s good that Pruitt is already thinking ahead with recruiting.