21 signees thus far.
Taking a look at the signees and where they fit it and will look at the positives and negatives.
Early National Signing Day - 21 Signees
1) speed receivers - blazing overall speed had been missing. Tennessee signed 3 blazing-fast wide receivers. Holiday is a wide receiver.
2) Big power running backs - we signed 2 big 230 lbs RBVs.
3) Depth at linebacker - we have 4 young freshmen, who will be sophomores, but we added 2 OLB and 3 ILB.
4) Big agile defensive linemen - Tennessee signed 3 big physical agile defensive linemen.
Pruitt's Standard Of Measurables
Harrison Bailey - has the talent and potential to be a very good college QB. Always trying to get better. Big 6'5' 215 lbs.
This who want to know what kind of offense Tennessee is going to run now and in the future, only need to look at the QBs signed by Pruitt - Shrout, Maurer, and Bailey - Big, Tall, Big Armed pocket passers.
Jimmy Holiday - Can play QB but does not have the measurables at the QB position that Pruitt wants for the position. Very good athlete. They will give him an opportunity to play QB, but it would require that Tennessee to change their offensive system and the types of players that they are recruiting to play the other positions. He may play QB in the wildcat.
If Holiday had played WR in high school, he would have been recruited by every top team in the US, He reminds Mathews of Jerry Jeudy at Alabama.
When all is said and done, he likely ends up as a WR. Add him to Hyatt and Jimmy Calloway and you have speed at WR that will have flipped the talent that we currently have at WR.
Jabari Small - reminds Pruitt of Eric Gray. (my note - reminds me of Pig Howard). Typoe of RB who is fast, quick and can catch the ball out of the backfield.
Len'Neth Whitehead - big powerful athletic RB. Mathews believes he may end up at linebacker.
Tee Hodge - another big powerful RB. Doug n=believes that Hidge and/or both Hodge and Whitehead move over to the linebacker position. They are big fast physical football players that fit what Pruitt likes in his linebackers.
Cooper Mays - natural center. Tough and physical center. Great feet with great football IQ
Jevontez Spraggins - big physical athlete. Doug believes that he will play offensive tackle ( my note - looks like an offensive guard to me).
James Robinson - Pruitt said that he is a guard.
Tyler Baron - a 4-3 Defensive End - 3-4 defensive tackle. Has athletic ability to play OLB, but likley to play with his hand in the dirt.
Omari Thomas - can play all three positions on the defensive line - NT, DT, DE. 3 Down linemen. Very athletic.
Dominic Bailey - can play all 3 defensive line positions. Another big athletic defensive linemen who play all 3 downs.
Reginald Perry - likely to play 4-3 defensive end, 3-4 DT.
Bryan Eason - big physical middle linebacker. Athletic Thumper.
Martavius French - 4 x 4 player - can play any linebacker position
Morven Joseph - fast DE but is a 4 x 4 player, who can play any of the linebacker positions and defensive lend.
Keyshawn "Key" Lawrence - Star of the show. Big, athletic, physical and fast DB. Can play all positions in the secondary.
Doneiko Slaughter - will play the nickel "star". Athletic player.
Tamarion McDonald - Is a winner. Will play safety or the "star"
Remaining Spots - February Signing Day
If a recruit has not signed and returned his LOI by December 20th, is going to be part of "open season" for recruiting.
Look at returning team - who will likely play?
Taking a look at the signees and where they fit it and will look at the positives and negatives.
Early National Signing Day - 21 Signees
- Pruitt has been part of 3 signing classes since arriving at Tennessee
- So far, this is the first class that has not had a JUCO player signed in it.
- Mathews said that this tells him that Pruitt likes where this program is and does not feel that he needs instant plug and play from JUCOs.
- Mathews did say that he would not be surprised if the Vols add a undergrad college transfer and/or a grad transfer or two to plug and play.
- Junior class in 2020 will not be a large class.
- This class is a balanced class by position group. The staff signed players from every single position group. - Except tight ends.
1) speed receivers - blazing overall speed had been missing. Tennessee signed 3 blazing-fast wide receivers. Holiday is a wide receiver.
2) Big power running backs - we signed 2 big 230 lbs RBVs.
3) Depth at linebacker - we have 4 young freshmen, who will be sophomores, but we added 2 OLB and 3 ILB.
4) Big agile defensive linemen - Tennessee signed 3 big physical agile defensive linemen.
Pruitt's Standard Of Measurables
- Doug said that in his time watching Pruitt on the recruiting trail, that Pruitt knows exactly what he wants - he has a plan and follows that plan.
- He coach sets the standard of measurables that the staff is looking to recruit. What size, height, speed, agility at each position that he wants to fill each need at each position.
- Many top teams around the country will recruit a player despite measurable, but Pruitt is very conscious of measurables and disciplined in setting and following his standard of measurables.
- If a player does not meet his standards of measurables, Pruitt will not hesitate to move on to the next player who does meet his standards.
- Pruitt recruits only players with high football IQ and football attitude. Feel for the game.
- Pruitt will only recruit big, physical, fast players. The staff has been schooled on exactly what Pruitt wants.
- Doug said as an example that Pruitt recruits only big tall, and big-armed QBs that fit his team's offensive scheme plans.
- Pruitt has signed 10 players from the state of Tennessee this far. Almost half of the signees thus far are from the state of Tennessee. (10 of 21 signees)
- Big and surprising. They are good football players - 5 are from the Memphis area- big development in recruiting for the future of Tennessee football.
- Mentioned Will Albright - top of the line long-snapping speed-08 seconds to get the ball ball to the punter. Most long snappers take a full second to do so. Albright is also a good athlete who will cover kicks as well.
- We have signed 10 offensive and 10 defensive players. Long snapper.
- In the first 2 of Pruitt's classes, there were glaring needs on various sides of the ball, where we over signed to meet those immediate needs.
- Finally from a depth standpoint (emphasized not from a talent standpoint), this is the first class where we don't have to sign strictly for need and can actually recruit based on talent.
- This is a balanced signing class.
- This Tennessee signing class makes Tennessee bigger, faster, and deeper than we are right now, moving into the future.
- Every single recruit has a particular coach assigned to him.
- Often times that assigned coach is not the key coach, who is able to reach across to the recruit and convince him to sign with Tennessee. Often it is the head coach and often it is a series of coaches.
- Recruiting is a coaching staff group effort.
- Rating systems - used as guide only,. Very similar to pre-season polls. As recruiting moves along, everything changes. Pruitt uses camp to evaluate the recruits. That is a much more important recruiting toll than recruiting systems.
Harrison Bailey - has the talent and potential to be a very good college QB. Always trying to get better. Big 6'5' 215 lbs.
This who want to know what kind of offense Tennessee is going to run now and in the future, only need to look at the QBs signed by Pruitt - Shrout, Maurer, and Bailey - Big, Tall, Big Armed pocket passers.
Jimmy Holiday - Can play QB but does not have the measurables at the QB position that Pruitt wants for the position. Very good athlete. They will give him an opportunity to play QB, but it would require that Tennessee to change their offensive system and the types of players that they are recruiting to play the other positions. He may play QB in the wildcat.
If Holiday had played WR in high school, he would have been recruited by every top team in the US, He reminds Mathews of Jerry Jeudy at Alabama.
When all is said and done, he likely ends up as a WR. Add him to Hyatt and Jimmy Calloway and you have speed at WR that will have flipped the talent that we currently have at WR.
Jabari Small - reminds Pruitt of Eric Gray. (my note - reminds me of Pig Howard). Typoe of RB who is fast, quick and can catch the ball out of the backfield.
Len'Neth Whitehead - big powerful athletic RB. Mathews believes he may end up at linebacker.
Tee Hodge - another big powerful RB. Doug n=believes that Hidge and/or both Hodge and Whitehead move over to the linebacker position. They are big fast physical football players that fit what Pruitt likes in his linebackers.
Cooper Mays - natural center. Tough and physical center. Great feet with great football IQ
Jevontez Spraggins - big physical athlete. Doug believes that he will play offensive tackle ( my note - looks like an offensive guard to me).
James Robinson - Pruitt said that he is a guard.
Tyler Baron - a 4-3 Defensive End - 3-4 defensive tackle. Has athletic ability to play OLB, but likley to play with his hand in the dirt.
Omari Thomas - can play all three positions on the defensive line - NT, DT, DE. 3 Down linemen. Very athletic.
Dominic Bailey - can play all 3 defensive line positions. Another big athletic defensive linemen who play all 3 downs.
Reginald Perry - likely to play 4-3 defensive end, 3-4 DT.
Bryan Eason - big physical middle linebacker. Athletic Thumper.
Martavius French - 4 x 4 player - can play any linebacker position
Morven Joseph - fast DE but is a 4 x 4 player, who can play any of the linebacker positions and defensive lend.
Keyshawn "Key" Lawrence - Star of the show. Big, athletic, physical and fast DB. Can play all positions in the secondary.
Doneiko Slaughter - will play the nickel "star". Athletic player.
Tamarion McDonald - Is a winner. Will play safety or the "star"
Remaining Spots - February Signing Day
If a recruit has not signed and returned his LOI by December 20th, is going to be part of "open season" for recruiting.
Look at returning team - who will likely play?
- Only 9-10 current junior - returning for 2020 season will see significant playing time.
- Tennessee will be a very young team in 2020.
- Where does Tennessee look to fill needs and add experienced players? - Grad and undergrad transfers.
- Could always use a top skill position player. OL and DL or great speed in a particular area.
