All for Tennessee
Fansided

Tennessee football’s National Signing Day surprisingly encouraging: Five storylines

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 22: Smokey the live Tennessee Volunteers mascot on the sidelines during the game between the Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers at Neyland Stadium on September 22, 2018 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Florida won the game 47-21. (Photo by Donald Page/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 22: Smokey the live Tennessee Volunteers mascot on the sidelines during the game between the Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers at Neyland Stadium on September 22, 2018 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Florida won the game 47-21. (Photo by Donald Page/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
5 of 5
Next
KNOXVILLE, TN – OCTOBER 11: Detailed view of the checkered endzone at Neyland Stadium during a game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Chattanooga Mocs on October 11, 2014 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee won the game 45-10. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN – OCTOBER 11: Detailed view of the checkered endzone at Neyland Stadium during a game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Chattanooga Mocs on October 11, 2014 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee won the game 45-10. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images) /

1. Top 20 ranking across the board

Okay, so this may still be contingent on Tennessee football keeping Dylan Brooks. However, given the way everything went down dating back to October, the Vols should be incredibly proud of hanging onto a top 20 recruiting class.

More from All for Tennessee

UT’s class was ranked  No. 17 on Rivals and No. 16 on 247Sports. Surprisingly, that’s the highest ranked recruiting class for a first-year head coach on Rocky Top since Derek Dooley in 2010, when he had a No. 9 ranked class. Both Butch Jones and Jeremy Pruitt had classes ranked outside of the top 20 their first years, although those were minor differences.

Now, there is some bad news. Despite being in the top 20, this class was No. 6 in the SEC across both services and third in the East behind the Florida Gators and Georgia Bulldogs. However, that’s still the top half of the conference, and UT has had much higher-ranked recruiting classes in the past that panned out to nothing.

Being middle of the pack and actually in the top half of their division and their conference allows enough of a baseline for Josh Heupel to work with. This alone is why we say that National Signing Day was surprisingly encouraging for the Vols. We still don’t know what’s about to hit the program, but some talent still exists.

Next. Vols AD Danny White's top 10 coaching hires at UCF, Buffalo. dark

In fact, in some ways, this class is better off than Tennessee football’s 2019 recruiting class, Pruitt’s first full class. Sure, he had a top 10 class in 2020, but his class was just No. 13 in 2019, not much better, and it was actually No. 7 in the SEC, one spot lower. That’s not a bad sign for Heupel as he just gets started.

Home/Vols Football