Tennessee football: 5 reasons Vols are fine without top 10 recruiting class

4. There were no wasted scholarships to boost the Vols’ ranking.

In addition to filling needs, Jeremy Pruitt did not waste scholarships on players who would just fill a void or spike the Vols’ class ranking for one year. What good is securing three four-stars at a position where you only need one player for the future?

Sure, it makes things easier in terms of identifying talent. But if you’re able to do that, which Pruitt appears able to do, then you can be more selective on where you go. The best example of this is at the quarterback position.

Tennessee football got one quarterback, a three-star in Brian Maurer. Well, they already have JT Shrout on the roster, and Jarrett Guarantano is the projected starter this upcoming year. Why waste too many scholarships on quarterbacks? He got one guy to build up the depth.

This is clearly Pruitt’s approach. In 2017, he ended up parting ways with two four-star commitments to Butch Jones at quarterback because they didn’t fit his system. That hurt the Vols’ rankings, but those rankings are meaningless if they’re built on guys who won’t play or won’t be good fits.

Remember, Butch Jones artificially spiked UT’s 2015 recruiting class with three four-star commitments at quarterback. By 2017, Quinten Dormady was the only guy still playing at quarterback for Rocky Top. Sheriron Jones did nothing for the Vols but spike that recruiting class.

The same holds true for running back, where he got one four-star all-purpose back for the future in Eric Gray. But there was no need to load up there if he didn’t get the talent he wanted with Ty Chandler, Tim Jordan and Jeremy Banks all set to be on the team by 2020.