I hear you, UTitan. No doubt, this is a stressful time of year for us, but oh so exciting at the same time!
I don't necessarily agree with you though on that logic, although I cannot fault your line of thinking because it makes sense. However, I believe that if any talented player of this caliber is interested, you do anything but turn your back on them. I understand we have some more pressing needs, especially on DLine, however, I look at recruiting like I would the NFL draft. You take the best talent left on the board, if that fills a need, wonderful, if not, you go out and find a free agent or pull in someone off the waiver wire to get you by until you can fill the need with talent. In college, you don't have those flexibilities, but you do have transfers, walk-ons, and players at other positions that may be converted for the short-term.
I have no doubt that CDD will find a way to address all of our needs one way or another. We have to realize though that his plan isn't just a one or even a two year plan, it likely reaches out to three or four years, and I doubt he believes that (with or without this athlete) he will fill ALL of our glaring weaknesses/holes in this class. I wish it were possible, but with the scholarship limits these days, it just isn't realistic. He knows that some of these guys, ones that I am sure many of us probably are counting on filling holes for us, in actuality will end up being busts and won't fill anything except a practice roster or splinter removal duty.
Just try to sit back and enjoy the ride, because it never goes down how you believed it would. Surprises are the only rule in the recruiting game, I just hope the positive surprises outnumber/outweigh the negative ones.
Go Vols!