Tennessee football: Five reasons Vols had awesome early signing day

3. Jay Hardy and Darnell Washington didn’t publicly sign.

Now this one is something fans should pay attention to on the other end for National Signing Day. Tennessee football is still in the running for some elite talent, and that elite talent did not commit or sign with anybody on Wednesday, which is good news for the Vols going forward. It should give them some serious hope.

UT suffered a blow when four-star in-state defensive tackle Jay Hardy out of Chattanooga committed to the Auburn Tigers. The Vols were once a major favorite to land him. However, Hardy did not sign on Wednesday, and he’s likely not going to sign during this period. That means that the coaches on Rocky Top still have his ear, and it could mean a big steal for them down the road.

Darnell Washington, meanwhile, is a five-star tight end out of Las Vegas. The Georgia Bulldogs have been overwhelming favorites to land this Nevada prospect for a while, but the good news for Rocky Top is that they have been trending, and he chose not to publicly sign or commit to anybody on Wednesday, meaning he is still leaving things open as well.

To be fair, Washington did leave a cryptic message with a tweet of a pen and paper on his account and pictures of the Dawgs in his Instagram story. But until he publicly signs the dotted line, UT is in the running. Washington could end up being a situation similar to Henry To’o To’o, whom the Vols surprisingly got at the last minute in 2019.