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Tennessee football: Five reasons to not panic over three elite QBs going elsewhere

By Caleb Calhoun

Westview High School sophomore quarterback Ty SimpsonJs 0410 Ty
Westview High School sophomore quarterback Ty SimpsonJs 0410 Ty /
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Sep 1, 2018; Charlotte, NC, USA; A Tennessee Volunteers helmet is seen pregame before the game against the West Virginia Mountaineers at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 1, 2018; Charlotte, NC, USA; A Tennessee Volunteers helmet is seen pregame before the game against the West Virginia Mountaineers at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-USA TODAY Sports /

It started when Tennessee football lost out on elite in-state quarterback Ty Simpson to the Alabama Crimson Tide on a Friday. Two days later, they lost out on Sam Horn to the Missouri Tigers. Then they lost legacy prospect Kaden Martin, the son of Tee Martin who comes out of Knoxville, to the Miami Hurricanes.

The pain and concern all of Vol Nation feels Friday from those losses is justified. However, nobody on Rocky Top needs to panic. Although new head coach Josh Heupel could have worked wonders with any of these guys, there are plenty of reasons that landing them wasn’t in the cards.

In this post, we’ll break down why losing out on these quarterbacks is not necessarily indicative of what’s to come on Rocky Top. Let’s go ahead and dive in why, first noting that everybody should wish these guys the best of luck. They made decisions for them, and that’s their right. These are the five reasons to not panic over Tennessee football missing out on elite quarterbacks.

5. The Vols were never the favorite

Let’s be fair here. The Clemson Tigers were the favorites by a majority on the Rivals Future Cast and the Rivals Fan Future Cast to land Simpson. Alabama, meanwhile, was the favorite across the 247Sports Crystal Ball. UT was clearly in third place at best to land him, and they may have even been below that. There was no indication he was heading to Rocky Top.

There were reasons to believe that Horn, who grew up a Vol fan, would want to join the Vols. However, the 247Sports Crystal Ball had Mizzou as the unanimous favorite. Martin, meanwhile, was reportedly only interested in UT to play baseball anyway, as Jimmy Hyams of WNML reported on Monday, so the Vols may never have gotten his talents for football.

Sure, it appeared as if Tennessee football drew renewed interest with Josh Heupel on board, but none of that showed up in the expert predictions. Simply put, it’s hard to feel let down by something you should have never expected to happen in the first place.

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