Tennessee football makes 2024 OL Kam Pringle’s top 10: How Vols can have a shot

Josh Heupel still depends heavily on elite tackle play to make sure his offense is able to run properly, and Tennessee football is targeting elite prospects at that position down the road. Recently, the Vols made the cut for one in 2024 from South Carolina.

Kam Pringle, a four-star across the board, has UT as one of six SEC team’s in his top 10. Hailing from Woodland High School in Dorchester, S.C., Pringle is also listed as an offensive tackle everywhere. He stands between 6’7″ and 6’8″ and weighs in the range of 325 to 340 pounds.

Joining Tennessee football on Pringle’s list are the South Carolina Gamecocks, Clemson Tigers, Georgia Bulldogs, N.C. State Wolfpack, Virginia Cavaliers, Auburn Tigers, Florida Gators, Ohio State Buckeyes and LSU Tigers. He announced the schools Tuesday on Twitter.

Obviously, South Carolina and Clemson would seem to be the favorites as in-state schools, and indeed, South Carolina is the favorite. While there are no favorites on the Rivals Future Cast, the 247Sports Crystal Ball has one prediction for South Carolina with a medium confidence interval.

Meanwhile, On3 has South Carolina as the favorite by a plurality with Clemson in second, and together, they are the favorites by a majority with Georgia in third, Florida in fourth and the Vols tied for fifth. South Carolina is also the favorite on the Rivals Fan Future Cast.

So how can UT get him out of South Carolina? Well, it’s pretty simple. They need the Gamecocks to struggle in Shane Beamer’s second year. There are promising signs that might happen, even with Spencer Rattler, as the team is already 1-1, but nothing is confirmed.

This isn’t new for Tennessee football. There’s a reason that when they were in their heyday, both South Carolina teams were mediocre to bad. In what is considered their peak five-year run of the modern era, 1995 to 1999, South Carolina went 23-43-1 with no more than seven wins a year.

Clemson, in that same span, went 31-31. Both fired their coaches after 1998, the year the Vols won the national championship, as Clemson went 3-8 that year and South Carolina went 0-11. it’s also true during the darkest period of UT history, 2010 to 2014, Clemson had Dabo Swinney, and South Carolina had Steve Spurrier.

Simply put, the more the South Carolina schools struggle, the better chance Tennessee football will have at landing Pringle. Clemson seems to slightly be a program on the decline under Swinney, but we’ll have to wait and see. If those two programs can flame out, then Heupel’s team could be in play.