Tennessee football recruiting: Vols offer seven more prospects for 2019

Tennessee football continues to get be aggressive on the trail under Jeremy Pruitt and co. The Volunteers offered scholarships to seven new 2019 recruits.

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Less than a week after the end of spring practice, Tennessee football is back on the recruiting trail. And the Vols spent Tuesday and Wednesday offering a plethora of prospects across the country. They offered seven new players overall from five different states.

Of those seven offers, three are currently committed to other schools. Four of the offers were to wide receivers, two were to defensive backs, and one was to a linebacker. Meanwhile, four of the offers are to four-stars, and three are to three-stars.

Tennessee football’s first offer of this batch came Tuesday afternoon to four-star wide receivers Isaiah Hazel of Upper Marlboro, Md. and David Bell of Indianapolis, Ind. Pruitt was clearly looking for playmakers with these offers, and they both announced them on Twitter.

Hazel, a 6’1″ 190-pound target, has interest from at least 20 schools, including the Alabama Crimson Tide. He is ranked a Top 40 wide receiver on Rivals and the No. 4 player in the state of Maryland.

Meanwhile, Bell is listed at 6’2″ 180 pounds. He is fielding offers from at least 19 schools, and is much higher ranked on Rivals as a Top 100 player overall, a Top 20 wide receiver and the top-ranked player in the state of Indiana.

In addition to Hazel and Bell, the Vols offered a scholarship to Eli Pancol Pendleton, Ind. Tuesday, another wide receiver from Indiana. Pancol is a three-star who is committed to the Duke Blue Devils right now. Listed at 6’4″ 190 pounds, Pancol is the No. 79 ranked wide receiver nationally and the No. 10 ranked player in the state. However, he clearly brings a bit more size than the other two, even if he doesn’t have the star ratings.

Pancol also announced Tennessee football’s offer on Twitter. But he also appeared to indicate he was not interested after a retweet of something somebody else said in relation to the offer. We have both tweets below.

As you can see, that second tweet indicates he’s fully committed to the Duke Blue Devils and David Cutcliffe’s program, at least for now. But hey, maybe things will change as the summer months begin to arrive.

Tennessee football’s final offer Tuesday was to another three-star. But he’s not a wide receiver, and he’s not committed to any school just yet.

The Vols offered cornerback Kendarias Moses. A 6’3″ 175-pound prospect, Moses comes from Baton Rouge, La. So he’s the first offer in the Deep South that the Vols made during this batch of offers. He announced the offer on Twitter as well.

Moses clearly brings a very unique size to playing cornerback, which is a huge advantage despite him just being a three-star. Rivals didn’t give him a national or position ranking, and he’s the No. 24 ranked player in his state. But if Jeremy Pruitt is going to evaluate anything well, it will be cornerbacks. That’s his speciality.

Moving onto Wednesday morning, Tennessee football didn’t let up. The Vols began the day by offering four-star linebacker Lee Kpogba. A Winston Salem, N.C. prospect listed at 6’2″ 210 pounds, Kpogba is currently committed to the West Virginia Mountaineers. He also made the announcement on Twitter.

Despite his current commitment, Tennessee football should definitely keep pursuing him. Ranked the No. 12 player overall at his position and the No. 11 player in the state, Kpogba would bring a ton of talent to Rocky Top.

Tennessee’s next offer was to another Maryland prospect. They went after three-star safety Bryson Shaw out of Bullis, Md., who is also committed to the Wisconsin Badgers at this moment. Shaw announced the offer on Twitter as well.

At 6’2″ 175 pounds, Shaw is ranked the No. 18 player in the state of Maryland. That’s not a ringing endorsement from Rivals, but he again has unique size for a defensive back. And that’s something that Pruitt and his staff were clearly going to value. So it was definitely worth the offer.

Finally, Tennessee football went back to an uncommitted four-star wide receiver for its final offer of this batch. The Vols reached out to Demariyon Houston out of Oklahoma City, Okla. Wednesday. A 6’0″ 165-pound receiver, Houston is ranked the No. 171 player overall nationally, the No. 29 receiver nationally and the No. 2 player in his state. He also announced the offer on Twitter.

Despite being a bit smaller, Houston could be another great slot guy for the Vols. That’s clearly something they are missing right now, so they could definitely use a player like him for the 2019 recruiting class. He is currently fielding offers from at least 20 schools all over the country.

With only four commitments so far for the 2019 recruiting class, Tennessee football still has a lot of work to do. However, this is a great start, and with spring practice over, Pruitt now has plenty of time to focus on this.

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Getting just two commitments out of this bunch would be a huge win. And with such a need for playmakers, the best would be to secure a pickup from either Houston, Hazel or Bell. But any of these guys would do.