'19 TN ILB Christopher Russell (Texas A&M signee)

#3,276
#3,276
volfaninpa said:
The VQ podcast basically said that since the staff didn't offer Russell after he camped, and since Jimbo personally made him a very big deal, that he's not coming to UT. Because of the UT love in Dyersburg, Russell allowed the coaches to keep coming to town so that the townspeople would enjoy it instead of telling the coaches that he wasn't coming to UT.

Then, VQ roasted the staff pretty hard on how they handled this year's in state recruiting. They mentioned Joseph Anderson, Zion Logue, and Russell specifically.

They did comment how in state prospects in Tennessee are not like other states where a school can offer at the 11th hour and them take that offer and not be offended while if Tennessee offers late, they are often insulted and don't come.

My question for the board is: Why do you think that is? Is it because UT isn't winning lately? It seems like it's been this way for a long time though.
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He is either with us or against us, time will tell. If he don't want to be here, then he don't need to be here. Someone else will take his spot.
 
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#3,277
#3,277
Nashvegas31 said:
There will be crickets from VQ if neither of those 3 players do jack squat in college. Anderson only one of those 3 we truly botched anyway.
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This is true. So we didn't offer Logue as early as GA? Okay... he camped there a week before here. I'm glad that he wanted to see guys before offering them. Anderson we messed up, no doubt. But the other guys are entitled cry babies. They can go to GA.

Good thing is, this stuff won't happen going forward. If the instate guys we want go elsewhere, it won't be because we didn't offer them in time or anything like that. All the guys we want in the 2020 class have already camped and already have offers and the staff has already prioritized them.
 
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#3,278
#3,278
gorockytop98 said:
I didn't think that we slow played Logue. He got a July offer, right?

My concern is more that the staff "misread" where they were at with recruits. They thought Russell would be a safe fallback but couldn't execute. The in-state element doesn't really bother me.
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Logue had to camp twice or something like that. He was butt hurt he had offer from UGA and others but not UT. When we offered he was already miffed. Whatever
 
#3,279
#3,279
gorockytop98 said:
I didn't think that we slow played Logue. He got a July offer, right?

My concern is more that the staff "misread" where they were at with recruits. They thought Russell would be a safe fallback but couldn't execute. The in-state element doesn't really bother me.
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I'm pretty sure that recruits also mislead staff where they stand as well.
 
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#3,280
#3,280
volinbama256 said:
but didn't we say that about the '19 class too?
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The '19 class that has given us, or will give us, Darnell Wright, Wanya Morris, Quavaris Crouch, Eric Gray, Ramel Keyton, Roman Harrison, Jaylen McCollough, Jackson Lampley, Jackson Lowe, et al? It may have been said about it.
 
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#3,281
#3,281
Bassmaster_Vol said:
This is true. So we didn't offer Logue as early as GA? Okay... he camped there a week before here. I'm glad that he wanted to see guys before offering them. Anderson we messed up, no doubt. But the other guys are entitled cry babies. They can go to GA.

Good thing is, this stuff won't happen going forward. If the instate guys we want go elsewhere, it won't be because we didn't offer them in time or anything like that. All the guys we want in the 2020 class have already camped and already have offers and the staff has already prioritized them.
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Yup, we're taking our lumps, but we are hopefully caught up on our evaluations at this point.

I've started looking at this as a 5 year rebuild that one "perfect" class won't fix. Just hope the staff is able to adjust their approach.
 
#3,282
#3,282
volinbama256 said:
but didn't we say that about the '19 class too?
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Pruitt and his staff were still working slightly behind the 8 ball in the 2019 class. I've thought all along that the true "elite" class would be the 2020 one. That's the one where UT is finally on level playing ground for most recruits. The junior year of a recruit is arguably the most pivotal year in recruiting, and Pruitt and his staff have been at UT for these kid's entire junior years in the 2020 cycle.

When Pruitt took over, Maurice Hampton was already committed to LSU. Bill Norton already had strong connections with UGA and committed to them 4 months into Pruitt's tenure at UT. He wasn't recruiting the state of TN all that hard before he got to UT. I don't blame him one bit for wanting to see a lot of the in-state kids at a camp before offering them. He wasn't watching them a lot during their junior years while he was at Bama.
 
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#3,283
#3,283
gorockytop98 said:
Yup, we're taking our lumps, but we are hopefully caught up on our evaluations at this point.

I've started looking at this as a 5 year rebuild that one "perfect" class won't fix. Just hope the staff is able to adjust their approach.
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If we aren't in the top 10 in 2020 then there will be something to be concerned about. But this class is outstanding, and coming off of our record, extremely impressive.
 
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#3,284
#3,284
ForkedDeerVol said:
Actually I posted about Russell in June and nobody seemed interested. I knew how good he was. I’m glad he is going to get an opportunity to play SEC football but it breaks my heart it won’t be in orange. Y’all can bash me all you want but why would I lie about something not happening that I want to happen ?
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Reverse troll psychology
 
#3,287
#3,287
InstrumentalVol said:
Notre Dame - CFB Playoff Semifinalist, 14th best class.
Tennessee - 4-8 in 2017, 5-7 in 2018, lost to Vanderbilt 3 years in a row, 15th best class.

Anyone who thinks this class is bad or underachieving please go dunk your head in the toilet.
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Notre Dame doesnt play an SEC schedule or theyd be middle of the pack tbh
 
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#3,291
#3,291
AngryButchJones said:
Pruitt and his staff were still working slightly behind the 8 ball in the 2019 class. I've thought all along that the true "elite" class would be the 2020 one. That's the one where UT is finally on level playing ground for most recruits. The junior year of a recruit is arguably the most pivotal year in recruiting, and Pruitt and his staff have been at UT for these kid's entire junior years in the 2020 cycle.

When Pruitt took over, Maurice Hampton was already committed to LSU. Bill Norton already had strong connections with UGA and committed to them 4 months into Pruitt's tenure at UT. He wasn't recruiting the state of TN all that hard before he got to UT. I don't blame him one bit for wanting to see a lot of the in-state kids at a camp before offering them. He wasn't watching them a lot during their junior years while he was at Bama.
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This.
 
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#3,292
#3,292
Ah yes, the feeding frenzy is gathering momentum.. Before long there will be nothing left but bones.........
 
#3,293
#3,293
volfaninpa said:
Then, VQ roasted the staff pretty hard on how they handled this year's in state recruiting. They mentioned Joseph Anderson, Zion Logue, and Russell specifically.
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Of course they did. The VQ talking heads need to have something to complain about, especially when they rely on 20/20 hindsight.

I’ll say this: it will be very interesting to see how Anderson, Logue and Russell turn out a few years from now, and whether they were worth all of this hand-wringing.
 
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#3,295
#3,295
swchandler1988 said:
If we only sign Wright we’ll finish in top 12-13. Something tells me we won’t just sign him. We’ll see
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If we only add Wright, we'll finish 13th at best.

We would be 11th currently, and it would be almost guaranteed that Auburn and OSU would jump us. That would leave Florida less than a point behind us at 23 commits. So, I'd say if nobody else jumped us, we'd most likely finish 14th.

But other than Pickens and To'oto'o, I don't think we're really in on any recruits that are rated high enough that they would have a significant impact on our class ranking. So I think we'll finish top-15, but outside the top-10. We would have to sign 2 of the 3 to get into the top-10.
 
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#3,296
#3,296
volfaninpa said:
The VQ podcast basically said that since the staff didn't offer Russell after he camped, and since Jimbo personally made him a very big deal, that he's not coming to UT. Because of the UT love in Dyersburg, Russell allowed the coaches to keep coming to town so that the townspeople would enjoy it instead of telling the coaches that he wasn't coming to UT.

Then, VQ roasted the staff pretty hard on how they handled this year's in state recruiting. They mentioned Joseph Anderson, Zion Logue, and Russell specifically.

They did comment how in state prospects in Tennessee are not like other states where a school can offer at the 11th hour and them take that offer and not be offended while if Tennessee offers late, they are often insulted and don't come.

My question for the board is: Why do you think that is? Is it because UT isn't winning lately? It seems like it's been this way for a long time though.
Click to expand...
5-7.
 
#3,297
#3,297
volfaninpa said:
The VQ podcast basically said that since the staff didn't offer Russell after he camped, and since Jimbo personally made him a very big deal, that he's not coming to UT. Because of the UT love in Dyersburg, Russell allowed the coaches to keep coming to town so that the townspeople would enjoy it instead of telling the coaches that he wasn't coming to UT.

Then, VQ roasted the staff pretty hard on how they handled this year's in state recruiting. They mentioned Joseph Anderson, Zion Logue, and Russell specifically.

They did comment how in state prospects in Tennessee are not like other states where a school can offer at the 11th hour and them take that offer and not be offended while if Tennessee offers late, they are often insulted and don't come.

My question for the board is: Why do you think that is? Is it because UT isn't winning lately? It seems like it's been this way for a long time though.
Click to expand...
Because we haven’t won s*** in years and aren’t putting many guys into the NFL either. Change those two things and kids like Russell stop caring so much about not being prioritized.
 
#3,298
#3,298
swchandler1988 said:
Logue had to camp twice or something like that. He was butt hurt he had offer from UGA and others but not UT. When we offered he was already miffed. Whatever
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No he only had to camp once but our camp was the wk after UGA camp. Purely timing. Now that I think of it. I wonder if logues good Friend Bennett not getting committable offer is what hurt there. I recall we were on him good but did tn let him commit. He and logue used to visit together early on.
 
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#3,300
#3,300
InstrumentalVol said:
Notre Dame - CFB Playoff Semifinalist, 14th best class.
Tennessee - 4-8 in 2017, 5-7 in 2018, lost to Vanderbilt 3 years in a row, 15th best class.

Anyone who thinks this class is bad or underachieving please go dunk your head in the toilet.
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Metrics-wise, it’s pretty similar to the 2016 class. Bad? No. Underachieving? Probably not, but I don’t think this has been as good of a recruiting staff as advertised though. My assumption is that Pruitt recognized that and that sparked getting Tee.

I think keeping Austin Thomas would have helped.
 
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