Tennessee football: Ranking Vols four 2020 early enrollees by potential

Four members of Tennessee football’s recruiting class are early enrollees and will be at spring practice. Here is how those Volunteers rank by potential.

This is a big drop-off from 2019, when Tennessee football had 10 early enrollees. Despite having the same number of recruits and a higher-ranked class, one that reached the top 10, the Vols only have four early enrollees this year.

However, it’s worth noting that Jeremy Pruitt doesn’t need nearly as much immediate help as he needed last year or the year before. As a result, early enrollees this year would have been much less likely to compete for starting jobs in the fall anyway.

Nonetheless, early enrollees always have a chance to make an impact, and they are a huge advantage for Tennessee football. Those extra spring practices can turn into a huge advantage by the time the season arrives.

Just take a look at last year. Wanya Morris was an early enrollee, and that allowed him the chance to be more ready to play in 2019 than Darnell Wright was despite Wright being a more high-profile recruit at tackle. The same was true for Jaylen McCullough, who worked his way into the starting lineup at safety down the stretch of the season after being an early enrollee.

It helps a lot to be one, and all four newcomers who fit that profile have such an advantage. In this post, we’re going to rank those players by just how much potential they have heading into this year’s spring practice.

The makeup of the depth chart and their potential to play is part of this. But we are also basing this on who has the biggest opportunity and the most to gain in terms of development and figuring out where they belong.

Simply put, we’re looking at who can cash in the most on this advantage. So let’s break that down here. This is our ranking of Tennessee football’s four early enrollees based on the potential they have heading into 2020.