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Evaluating Tennessee football’s 2021 DT class at dead period

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 29: A general view of Neyland Stadium during the South Carolina Gamecocks game against the Tennessee Volunteers on October 29, 2011 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 29: A general view of Neyland Stadium during the South Carolina Gamecocks game against the Tennessee Volunteers on October 29, 2011 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images
Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images /

Final take

With four seniors in the system, Tennessee football would appear to need to load up on its recruiting class for 2021. However, Jeremy Pruitt was clearly planning for that years back, and that’s why he was able to secure two commitments from defensive tackles in 2020.

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Already, he has two commitments for 2021, and one is an elite prospect in KaTron Evans. Isaac Washington is more of a project, but the Vols will have room for that in 2021 because they should still have enough talent for an elite rotation at defensive tackle.

After all, Greg Emerson, Kurrott Garland, Kingston Harris, Elijah Simmons will all be in the system plus the 2020 commits, Dominic Bailey and Omari Thomas. There’s also the outside chance that Darel Middleton or Savion Williams, or even both, take redshirts this year.

Because of all this, the Vols are set at defensive tackle through 2022 if nothing else happens the rest of the way. They don’t need to add anybody else because nobody not a senior this year will be a senior in 2021.

That means unless there are some early departures, Rocky Top should have eight guys in the rotation in 2022, a rotation that has two roster spots, sometimes three. Even if there is one, they would then have seven. So they are loaded no matter what happens.

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Prediction

Given what we broke down and the current trajectory of Tennessee football’s top prospects, the Vols aren’t going to have any more commitments at defensive tackle this year. They’ll reload the class in 2021, but the position is set for now. Also, that should be just fine going forward.

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