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Tennessee football: Critics of Vols recruiting willing to change their tune

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 15: A view of the outside of Neyland Stadium before a game between the Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers on September 15, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 15: A view of the outside of Neyland Stadium before a game between the Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers on September 15, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images) /
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Tennessee football recruiting has taken off in the past month. And earlier critics of Jeremy Pruitt and the Volunteers are now willing to change their tune.

After two more commitments over the weekend, Tennessee football has been on a roll on the recruiting trail. Since May 1, the Vols have added six new commitments, and four of them are four-stars on Rivals.

The hot streak has critics changing their tune. Specifically, we’re referring to Gridiron Now. Back on May 9, Ryan Green of Gridiron Now posted this article about Tennessee football struggling on the recruiting trail. Up to that point, only one of these six Vols, four-star Wanya Morris, had committed.

Still, Rocky Top launched an all-out defense of Jeremy Pruitt, noting the circumstances of when he took over and the situation at the time. We even got in on the action with this post here.

Within the next month exactly, the other five players committed. And after the two that came through over the weekend, Gridiron Now has changed its tune.

Green released another post Monday about what started the turnaround for recruiting on Rocky Top. It documented Tennessee football’s hot streak, noting that it did start with Morris.

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Sure, this is just one example of a change in tune, but it shows you how quickly things can turn around. Mike Griffith of SEC Country wrote on Sunday that the Vols are gaining momentum in recruiting and that Pruitt is delivering on promises.

Simply put, the national narrative is clearly changing around Tennessee football. Now, there’s reason to be skeptical of the class Pruitt is going to get.

This is only a Top 20 class overall, so far, and the conference is ridiculously competitive. Add in Tennessee’s lack of deep in-state talent compared to Georgia or Florida or Louisiana, despite the fact that it’s growing, and it’s hard to get a Top 10 class coming off a 4-8 year.

But Pruitt can get a good enough class. And he’s putting a lot of eggs into having a successful first season as head coach, not just thinking about the future the way other coaches do. That should help him even more for the future.

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So we still maintain our position from a month ago. Coverage of Tennessee football on the recruiting trail requires patience. But at the same time, to have an unprecedented class with tons of elite talent, Pruitt will have to put more effort into a good first year than Kirby Smart or Nick Saban did with the Georgia Bulldogs or Alabama Crimson Tide respectively.

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