Tennessee football recruiting has completely reset expectations since the early signing period. Jeremy Pruitt’s turnaround is amazing for the Volunteers.
Let’s not forget that when Jeremy Pruitt took over as Tennessee football’s head coach a month ago, he had to completely reset the board. The Vols had suffered a wave of decommitments from their original Top 5 class because of Butch Jones’s hot seat.
Then Pruitt came in and had to find specific guys to fit his system, meaning he had to turn other commitments away. The chaos amidst all of this caused the Vols to lose out on five-star offensive lineman Cade Mays.
And with a recruiting class falling outside of the Top 60, expectations were low for Jeremy Pruitt’s first recruiting class.
But then he had an amazing early signing period that saw five players commit, including four four-stars. And the Vols’ class jumped from outside of the Top 60 into the Top 25.
Now, with the No. 22 ranked recruiting class, expectations have been completely reset. And not satisfied, Pruitt has them recruiting big while he still has to focus on the Alabama Crimson Tide’s national championship game as defensive coordinator.
Another huge boost of splash news hit on Wednesday. Four-star linebacker J.J. Peterson revealed that he is set to announce his commitment in Saturday’s U.S. Army All-American Bowl, according to a report from Jim Halley of USA TODAY.
That would be a fifth four-star commitment for Pruitt and move this class into the Top 20. So this is a huge deal.
On top of that, four-star cornerback Olaijah Griffin decommitted from the UCLA Bruins recently and has Tennessee football as a clear-cut top choice. At this point, it would be shocking if Griffin and Peterson did not sign with the Vols.
That would bring their commitment total to 19 with 11 four-star commitments. Such a class is more than enough to get them into the Top 20.
And five-star Isaac Taylor-Stuart, four-star Jacob Copeland and a litany of other players are still in play. As a result, like we mentioned in a post two weeks ago, Tennessee football fans have gone from hoping to salvage the 2018 recruiting class to thinking about a potential Top 10 class. That’s incredible!
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National Signing Day is still a month away, and Pruitt will be able to focus solely on that in four days after he finishes coaching with the Tide. There’s a chance he could even make more splashes during that time. But even now, there’s no way to not be amazed by his turnaround for Tennessee football’s 2018 recruiting class. Peterson’s announcement and Griffin’s decommitment only further prove that.