Tennessee football: 5 reasons for excitement surrounding Vols offseason

5. No bowl game meant more time to recruit.

Hey, there’s good in everything, right? Tennessee football picked up four commitments during the early signing period, and the two most notable ones were four-star running back Eric Gray and four-star athlete Quavaris Crouch, who will likely play linebacker but could play offense.

Gray was an in-state guy, but the Vols had to make a late push for Crouch. You wonder if they could have had the same impact had they been focusing on bowl preparations for some meaningless postseason game with a 6-6 record.

Even more importantly, though, is the impact this could have on the overall class. National Signing Day is less than a month away, and the Vols are targeting numerous other guys. While other teams going after those guys did have to focus on bowl practice, Jeremy Pruitt and his staff were able to spend that time making connections with some of the major targets.

Again, that has to have been an advantage. Remember, last year the Vols lost out on a lot of their  top targets for National Signing Day, even though they hit big in the early signing period. That was because Pruitt was focusing heavily on the early signing period, and in the time between that and National Signing Day, he was stuck focusing on his defensive coordinator duties with the Alabama Crimson Tide.

That’s not the case this year, and he doesn’t even have to worry about a bowl practice. So Pruitt has had more time to sell his vision to recruits, and that could be a huge advantage when it comes time to round out the class.