Tennessee football recruiting: Vols 2019 class by the numbers

3. Number of recruits by state

1. Georgia: 9

2. Tennessee: 5

3. North Carolina: 3*

4. Florida: 2

5. West Virginia, Maryland, South Carolina, California: 1

Tennessee football built itself on in-state talent under Butch Jones and even through Jeremy Pruitt’s first year. With the exception of the 2016 class, which was very light overall anyway, the Vols had anywhere from 8 to 10 in-state recruits every year since 2014.

The 2013 class, which Jones strung together in a month, still had six in-state players. But Jeremy Pruitt had a different focus for his first full recruiting class, and that focus was in the state of Georgia, where he spent two years as a defensive coordinator and has experience recruiting.

The Vols got nine players from the state of Georgia, making it clear that they want to focus on that area again. Adding Tee Martin to their staff is one big way to prove that they want to focus on the state. Pruitt still scored five players from Tennessee. Two were from Memphis, two were from Nashville, and one was a junior college transfer but originally from Oak Ridge.

Outside of that, North Carolina was a bit of a pipeline. Three players committed from the state, but Anthony Harris still hasn’t signed yet. Add in the two players from Florida, and we can see where Pruitt wants to focus.

He then pulled a Phillip Fulmer by getting Henry To’oto’o out of California, establishing the Vols out there once again. Maryland and South Carolina both provided a random player, then there was West Virginia, which provided the best player in the class for the Vols in five-star offensive lineman Darnell Wright.