Recruiting

[TENICFAN30]

What is it gonna take for us to start getting back up in the top 10 in recruiting. And How did butch stay there and suck on the field and pruitt not recruit as good as him so far and his recruits product better results. Recruiting makes no since to me! Look at Georgia they get alot of the 5* talent and they would be right up there with Alabama with on field results but they find a way not to.

 

[VolRoger]

What is it gonna take for us to start getting back up in the top 10 in recruiting. And How did butch stay there and suck on the field and pruitt not recruit as good as him so far and his recruits product better results. Recruiting makes no since to me! Look at Georgia they get alot of the 5* talent and they would be right up there with Alabama with on field results but they find a way not to.

Average 10 or more wins a season and start winning the East Division every other year. Short of those two, lots of bag men.

 

[CA_Vol]

Basically Butch recruited well, but was a jackass who couldn’t develop talent or coach effectively. Now that recruits saw his snake oil sales pitch didn’t prove true, they want Pruitt and Tennessee to prove they can do it first.

 

[Gandalf]

Answer = WINNING!

The more we do of that, the better we will recruit. Pretty simple really.

First year or two you can promise playing time, after that, you have to show wins. Butch stacked up on guys for star value it seemed, but he couldnt develop them and his system didnt work for SEC ball.

Puitt and staff have world class resumes of developing players into NFL draft picks. Now that Pruitt has gotten his newbie HC sea legs, as the wins keep coming, you will see better and better recruiting. Again - this staff has THREE 24/7 national recruiters of the year on staff - one of them Pruitt himself and Nieds actually won HERE in Pruitts first year. If that isnt promising, I dont know what to tell you. Foundation work isnt flashy but it sets the base for everything else.

Lets win out and I will bet you that we pick up an absolutely great class of recruits, that turn out to be mostly booms with few busts as we go forward. these guys know how to chose talent and how to coach it up.

 

[morristown vol]

Maybe you should go to the recruiting celebration this year.We signed a bunch of really good players last year that could have went anywhere and this year not over yet

 

[bpalmer28]

Pruitt has recruited some studs. Not sure if Butch recruited better. Thompson, Wright, Morris, Henry T... how many freshman all-SEC did butch recruit his first 2 years? Trey Smith yes. Any more? Can’t recall

 

[vols40]

thanks for the answer shows your football IQ or your personality one....thanks to the rest of you for your replies!

I think we just need to continue to work Coach Pruitt plan. Evaluate talent and then develop that talent to their fullest potential. We are starting to see on a small level (nearly two seasons) what this staff is capable of. So finish the task at hand in these last 2 games and continue to work the plan.

 

[TENICFAN30]

I can't argue I guess the media just seemed to blow the horn more for butch. I never understood why. I think pruitt is doing a really good job as far as picking talent and developing it into all - SEC talent. Pruitt likes to stay behind closed door more so butch likes everything on tv and in the paper he likes to hear his name everywhere.

 

[vols40]

I can't argue I guess the media just seemed to blow the horn more for butch. I never understood why. I think pruitt is doing a really good job as far as picking talent and developing it into all - SEC talent. Pruitt likes to stay behind closed door more so butch likes everything on tv and in the paper the likes to hear his name everywhere.

You are correct. The two coaches are polar opposites.

 

[sameolvol]

What is it gonna take for us to start getting back up in the top 10 in recruiting. And How did butch stay there and suck on the field and pruitt not recruit as good as him so far and his recruits product better results. Recruiting makes no since to me! Look at Georgia they get alot of the 5* talent and they would be right up there with Alabama with on field results but they find a way not to.

Butch recruited stars with a lot of *s...period. Once he had them on campus, he stuck them right where they played in HS (IE Hurd at RB and McKenzie at DT, etc.). He also neglected to properly evaluate who were the most talented players (IE, not starting Kamara), and even with some of the best coaches available (IE, Shoop @ DC), his glaring coaching weaknesses had been unveiled and his con-man's house of cards tumbled down upon his head. Hey. From my perspective and looking back a few years, I supported Butch at first. He had me convinced...mostly through his recruiting finesse...that he was the real deal. At 68 I'm still learning.

Pruitt's a bona-fide, top notch player evaluator who finds the best possible young men who not only possess the physical and football acumen to fill the roles for each position in his high end schemes, but also those who have the character of total team players; tough young men who already know how to win, with high football IQs and who will grow into the positions they'd been chosen to fill. In case you haven't noticed, these youngsters are developing beautifully. Yes?

 

[bpalmer28]

Butch changed how I look at recruiting. I no longer focus so much on the stars as it can be misleading. I put more stock into talent evaluations nowadays.

For example, what do you consider a better recruiting job - signing Maleik Gray, Eric Crosby, and Will Ignont (all 4-stars) or Jahmir Johnson, Trevon Flowers, and Brian Maurer (all 3-stars)?

Other notable Pruit 3-stars:
Middleton
Simmons
Akporoghene
Banks
Tillman

I know Pruitt's classes haven't been highly rated, but I think he's doing just fine. If he signs the 2-star kid from Nevada and he ends up providing quality depth, I'd consider that a good recruiting job. Let's see how players like Jalin Hyatt, Tamarion McDonald, Tee Hodge, Jimari Butler, and James Robinson perform on Saturdays before we conclude that this isn't a good class.

 

[rikberry31]

What is it gonna take for us to start getting back up in the top 10 in recruiting. And How did butch stay there and suck on the field and pruitt not recruit as good as him so far and his recruits product better results. Recruiting makes no since to me! Look at Georgia they get alot of the 5* talent and they would be right up there with Alabama with on field results but they find a way not to.

Recruiting rankings are totally meaningless. A player is ranked by who is recruiting him. Therefore if winning programs and proven coaches are recruiting a player he adds stars.
So the top programs will always have the top rankings. Tennessee can improve their ranking by becoming a top tiers program again or flipping recruits offered by top programs (this what Butch primarily did). Stars and rankings are for the media and fans, I guarantee the coaches don’t care.

 

[TAF]

There’s something about the look of Pruitt recruits...they just “look” better than we have seen (seent) for a dozen plus years around Tennessee. Call me a homer, but I think there is just a different “look” to them. MHO

 

[Volfan76]

Pruitt going to have to cut the fat. Some of the coaches are getting paid WAY too much to not produce any more than they have on the recruiting trail.

 

[Billy Ratliff]

Lots of moving parts to crootin’ and it’s part art, part science, part bag man. Butch was a salesman but also got lucky with some circumstances and instate/legacy recruits.

IMO we were poised for a big recruiting year, but it has come down to QB play early. I am so proud of Jarrett Guarantano and he will always have my respect. But the coaches clearly expected him to take a big step forward and have a huge year, carrying the team to maybe 8-4, 9-3...that’s possibly 10 wins with a bowl.

But, he couldn’t get out of his own head. He put a lot of pressure on himself and imploded. Now that the pressure of the season and early nfl hopes are gone, we see him performing much better. Basically moved out recruiting calendar back 1 year, but luckily we have real coaches who can teach and not just salesmen who don’t develop players.

 

[CA_Vol]

Pruitt has recruited some studs. Not sure if Butch recruited better. Thompson, Wright, Morris, Henry T... how many freshman all-SEC did butch recruit his first 2 years? Trey Smith yes. Any more? Can’t recall

Butch had a rookie NFL All-Pro standing on the sideline next to him. Such a loser.

 

[rikberry31]

Pruitt going to have to cut the fat. Some of the coaches are getting paid WAY too much to not produce any more than they have on the recruiting trail.

This staff has recruited better that any UT staff since CPF made that cameo in “The Blind Side.” We landed players last year that were aggressively sought by many top tier programs, we’re not just poaching around their perimeters anymore.

 

[orangemadam]

Need to slow down. Let the next two games unfold before putting Pruitt on the throne.

anything can happen. just sayin.

 

[djohnnyg]

I think the expectation when Pruitt came aboard was that we would be top 5 recruiting very quickly. He was touted as 'Recruiter of the year" and all that..and after that first signing class he said himself we would be at the top the next year. That didn't come anywhere close to happening. We can blame "the mess that Butch left" as we have done after every coach has left since Fulmer...but we are currently 18th nationally on Rivals for 2020. That's not terrible...but it leaves us 7th in the SEC. Should we expect better given our situation? I don't know. I do know we were promised better. Hey...it could be much worse too I guess. Let's hope we can still move up.

 

[djohnnyg]

Just a side note. You know why so many of us were so excited about the possibility of Gruden coming? Recruiting. I believe he would have been a dynamo with just his name and had us in top 3 like right away....and like he's proving in Oakland right now...he's still a damn good coach. Sorry for bringing up Gruden. I know that ticks a lot of people off in here...but the only reason I do so is in regard to how we need someone who can really recruit. With our latest winning streak things are looking up for Pruitt...but we were in this same spot last year. He MUST close strong. vs. Mizzou and Vandy.

 

[Shaun1985]

Same song and dance to these recruits. They heard Tennessee was on the way up with Butch and we fell flat on our faces. They hear the same with Pruitt. Winning cures all.

 

[I40flyer]

The problem with recruiting, IMHO, is the way it is judged by the general public. Rather than judging the quality of recruits, by the way they add to the teams play, FAR to many jump on the "How many stars did we get?" in order to make a determination. Boy butch was the best example I can think of, yes boy butch could not coach players and help them improve, but he [boy butch] was lauded as being some king of super-duper recruiter. It's too bad we can't pull up all the posts, off this board and others, by coach worshipper that couldn't say enough about boy butch's recruiting talents-the problem was, the W-L record.

 

[Woke]

Recruiting stars and talent are 2 different things. While IMO Pruitt is not yet a proven HC he’s a proven talent evaluator and developer on D and he’s put together a staff who do same on both sides of the ball.
I trust Pruitt & Co.s evaluation of 3 stars better than most public evaluations of 4 stars made by the recruiting services.
So count me out over most of the recruiting hype. I’ve seen way too many high ranked busts. While 5 stars are 5 stars, other than hype from camps and PR there’s very little distinction between many 4 stars and high 3 stars.
As long as Pruitt & Co continue to ID and reel in their top targets I’m confident they’re rebuilding our team so I could really care less if we finish #7 in the SEC or in the top 3. IMO the margin is so small between #3 and up that “class rank” is subjective at best.
Our rebuild is on the right track in terms of personnel anyway. When we start winning we’ll start attracting more 5 stars. Or not.

 

[Volfan76]

This staff has recruited better that any UT staff since CPF made that cameo in “The Blind Side.” We landed players last year that were aggressively sought by many top tier programs, we’re not just poaching around their perimeters anymore.

We have top 10 facilities and top 5 recruiting budget in the nation. We have ALWAYS landed highly regarded recruits. We arent landing enough of them to compete with top tier programs and Pruitt knows it. Coaches will be cut this off season because of recruiting production.

 

[I40flyer]

Recruiting stars and talent are 2 different things. While IMO Pruitt is not yet a proven HC he’s a proven talent evaluator and developer on D and he’s put together a staff who do same on both sides of the ball.
I trust Pruitt & Co.s evaluation of 3 stars better than most public evaluations of 4 stars made by the recruiting services.
So count me out over most of the recruiting hype. I’ve seen way too many high ranked busts. While 5 stars are 5 stars, other than hype from camps and PR there’s very little distinction between many 4 stars and high 3 stars.
As long as Pruitt & Co continue to ID and reel in their top targets I’m confident they’re rebuilding our team so I could really care less if we finish #7 in the SEC or in the top 3. IMO the margin is so small between #3 and up that “class rank” is subjective at best.
Our rebuild is on the right track in terms of personnel anyway. When we start winning we’ll start attracting more 5 stars. Or not.

Really good post! I'd love to see a Class ranking system that spans 5 years, what it was each year starting with day one, and each following year. I'm betting the rankings would change so much, the value of the day one ranking would show itself to be close to worthless-over-all through out the NCAA.