Tennessee football: Five reasons Vols will have top 5 2020 recruiting class

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KNOXVILLE, TN – OCTOBER 5: The Tennessee Volunteers mascot Smokey runs through the end zone after a score against the Georgia Bulldogs at Neyland Stadium on October 5, 2013 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images) /

1. Tennessee football has direct pipelines into fertile recruiting grounds.

We just detailed how elite Tennessee football’s staff is when it comes to recruiting and how proven these guys are. What adds to that, though, is the fact that they are now on Rocky Top with more connections than ever before.

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The Vols have so many insane recruiting connections to elite talent now it’s not even funny. Let’s first look at the top way you develop recruiting connections: relationships with high school coaches. Six of their assistant coaches spent years coaching high school, and Jeremy Pruitt himself also coached high school.

Those coaches’ high school connections cover states across the South. Pruitt, Will Friend and Kevin Sherrer all coached in Alabama. David Johnson coached in Louisiana and Mississippi. Tee Martin coached in Georgia. Chris Rumph coached in South Carolina. Finally, Chris Weinke coached in Florida.

If you’re keeping track, that makes three of the top five states, four of the top six, and five of the top eight states when it comes to total number of blue chips. And Weinke’s connection is five years as head coach at IMG Academy in Florida, probably the top high school in the country for producing elite college football talent. But there’s more to the story.

Another one of the top 10 states is Tennessee. So the Vols obviously have a pipeline into that state alone, and it’s made only greater with Martin himself, who won a national championship playing for the Vols, and with Johnson, who coached in Memphis.

Finally, Martin and Ansley bring another elite recruiting state into the fold, as they spent time in California. Martin built a major reputation covering Southern California after six years with the USC Trojans, and Ansley helped in Northern California with one year under Jon Gruden coaching the Oakland Raiders.

So Tennessee football has major connections to seven of the top 10 recruiting states, and they have lesser connections into two others with Rocker spending a year in Ohio coaching the Cincinnati Bearcats and their state bordering North Carolina.

Tee Martin's 10 greatest games played with Vols. dark. Next

Simply put, the Vols are connected on a national scale now, and that should help them get a ton of talent in the future. Combine that with the recruiting skill of their assistants, the growing in-state talent, the improving program and the flexibility, and this program has all the tools necessary to secure a top 5 class by 2020.

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