All for Tennessee
Fansided

Tennessee football: 5 takeaways from Vols’ National Signing Day 2019

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 7: A Tennessee Volunteer holds up his helmet in the team huddle before the NCAA football game against the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders at Neyland Stadium on September 7, 2002 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee won 26-3. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 7: A Tennessee Volunteer holds up his helmet in the team huddle before the NCAA football game against the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders at Neyland Stadium on September 7, 2002 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee won 26-3. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 6
Next
Tennessee football
Photo by Donald Page/Getty Images /

Tennessee football bolstered its recruiting class for 2019 on the final day. Here are five takeaways from National Signing Day for the Volunteers.

And just like that, the 2019 Tennessee football recruiting class is drawing to a close. Okay, so it may not be done, as Jeremy Pruitt hinted at with his press conference recapping the day, which you can take a look at here. But we are going to recap what we know of it so far.

With three new commitments and one decommitment, the Vols ended up with 23 people in their class for 2019. They had a splash of a National Signing Day to get a Top 15 class overall, and it’s their highest ranked class since Butch Jones brought in back to back top 5 classes in 2014 and 2015.

Both the Rivals and 247 Composite team rankings have Tennessee football’s class ranked at No. 12, and Rivals has it at No. 6 in the SEC behind the Alabama Crimson Tide, Georgia Bulldogs, Texas A&M Aggies, LSU Tigers  and Florida gators. Meanwhile, the composite rankings have them .2 points behind the Auburn Tigers as well to be No. 7 in the conference.

Either way, it was a big day on Rocky Top, as National Signing Day always is. But what does it mean for a program coming off back to back losing seasons in which they went 4-8 and 5-7 with two different head coaches?

Well, quite honestly, it means a lot of things. Given the clear weaknesses of the team last year, the returning talent, the personnel changes in the offseason and the upcoming schedule, this 2019 recruiting class is going to be a huge part of Jeremy Pruitt’s rebuilding process on Rocky Top.

As a result, this was definitely the most important class of Pruitt’s tenure on Rocky Top, and like always, we can safely say we have no idea how it will turn out. If you look at the history of the Vols, they have had top 5 classes be among the worst busts of all time, and they have had classes in the 10 to 15 range, such as the 1995 class, become the most successful in history.

Simply put, these things are always up in the air, and it’s no different now. But that doesn’t mean we weren’t able to gather a lot from this class. So let’s break it down here. These are our five takeaways from National Signing Day 2019 for Tennessee football recruiting.

Home/Vols Football