Recruiting

Teams with less talent can be coached to perform at a higher level than teams with more talent. That's on the coaching staff. App St. Beating Michigan is an example. Georgia St. Beating us is another. The talent gap was huge.....but they won. JH needs to show thaat he can out scheme and out coach to get us through the next 3 years. During that time, he needs to be building a foundation for the following years. If he can't show something in year 1, that's not going to be a good sign.
1985 Sugar Vols are another example. We were not the best talent in the league that year but won the SEC because we played as a team.
 
I think Heupel is a bright offensive mind and will def improve our lackluster offense but my concern is can he recruit at a high enough level here to succeed. And is it a huge deal even if he can’t recruit to the level of Butch and Pruitt if he does a better job of in game coaching and coaching the kids up. We all know Butch and Pruitt were good recruiters but terrible in game coaches with their recruits especially Pruitt. I do think JH will get 5 full seasons here to turn it around. What are you guys overall expectations for Heupel?

Program normally have a lull in recruiting when there is coaching turnover. It was made worse this year by the idiots by the high price recruiting scandal. I think some of the recruiting attrition doesn't happen if this was a normal coaching change.

I would say recruiting is a concern right now but it will take care of itself in the long run. We do need impact players to come in and losing some of the gems of the class don't help. It sure makes those May 2020 recruiting rankings for the class of 2021 look like a joke now.
 
I think Heupel is a bright offensive mind and will def improve our lackluster offense but my concern is can he recruit at a high enough level here to succeed. And is it a huge deal even if he can’t recruit to the level of Butch and Pruitt if he does a better job of in game coaching and coaching the kids up. We all know Butch and Pruitt were good recruiters but terrible in game coaches with their recruits especially Pruitt. I do think JH will get 5 full seasons here to turn it around. What are you guys overall expectations for Heupel?
If he's good at developing players and does well on game day, we should average 8 wins regardless of how well he recruits. I'm ok with that for now. Would be a huge improvement over recent years.
 
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I think Heupel is a bright offensive mind and will def improve our lackluster offense but my concern is can he recruit at a high enough level here to succeed. And is it a huge deal even if he can’t recruit to the level of Butch and Pruitt if he does a better job of in game coaching and coaching the kids up. We all know Butch and Pruitt were good recruiters but terrible in game coaches with their recruits especially Pruitt. I do think JH will get 5 full seasons here to turn it around. What are you guys overall expectations for Heupel?
If he's good at developing players and does well on game day, we should average 8 wins regardless of how well he recruits. I'm ok with that for now. Would be a huge improvement over recent years.
 
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Thoughts are we’re going to suck for a while. Despite whether Heupel is or isn’t the guy. Some expect an miraculous turnaround but it’s going to take time and a lot of it.
This right here, plus any scholarship losses, and recruiting losses are going to kill us, for a few years.
2021 Football Transfer Portal

Folks, we've lost 25 players, just from the transfer portal. That isn't counting Brooks, and all the other recruits who will change their minds, this year, and the following years. We are in for a long wait, before we are relevant.
 
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This right here, plus any scholarship losses, and recruiting losses are going to kill us, for a few years.
2021 Football Transfer Portal

Folks, we've lost 25 players, just from the transfer portal. That isn't counting Brooks, and all the other recruits who will change their minds, this year, and the following years. We are in for a long wait, before we are relevant.
They don't want to believe it. I hope they are right and we are wrong, but I'm definitely leaving my cup on. I'll be elated if we go 6-6.
 
I honestly don't think recruiting is important right now. Tennessee will recruit itself to some extent. A good coach should average 8 wins.
 
I think Heupel and his staff might have to recruit two way players depending on scholarship numbers after the sanctions are known.
 
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Every time we have one of these new coaching deals, it’s always the same thing.
“This is gonna take 5 years. We all have to be patient. “. We’re on our 25th year in 5 year rebuilds. This one will likely be like all the rest. There better be massive improvement by year 2, meaning beating everybody on the schedule except the dreaded 3, but close on those. If not there will be “peaceful protests “ in the streets with mattresses burned. If he isn’t caught with some for cause offense, he will get a year three, but you better be flirting with 10 wins by then. If not you’re out and we start again. And around and around we go.

This type of thinking has helped us get to the point we are in now. We better see massive improvement in year 2. Why? Do you not realize the position we are in? Massive attrition. Reduced scholarships and who knows what else. The former staff almost buried this program. Expecting JS to get to 9 wins in year 2 is unrealistic given our circumstances and the conference we play in.

Your post proves why this fan base is almost universally mocked as being completely insane.
 
And because Florida was on probation. I loved that team probably more than any other though.
There were several future NFL players on that team. But, they weren't household names. Harry Galbreath, Bruce Wilkerson, Carlos Raveiz, Tim McGee, Tim Smith, Daryl Wilson, Terry McDaniel, Chris White, Charles Davis, Darrin Miller, Kelly Ziegler, Joey Clinkscales, William Howard. Sadly, Dale Jones never really made it.
 
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As things stand at this moment, IMO, we have the talent on the offense to be competitive against most teams. One of the biggest obstacles to turning a program around is getting the high level skill position people to believe in what you are promoting and commit to that vision on belief alone. We already have several highly rated QBs on the team that appear to be excited about the new staff. The WR class last year could be dynamic and will be here for another 2-3 years minimum. We did take a hit in the RB room, but Beckwith is going to be one to watch, and Small showed flashes in the few carries he got last year. Don’t know how the JC back is going to look. OL also took a hit, but I still believe JP’s philosophy of cross training each player on 2-3 different positions really hurt their performance last year, and we could see better performance there even though less talented.

Defensively, still a lot of questions to be answered, ala HT and QC at LB. If both leave, that’s going to hurt. Hoping the new LB coach from Michigan, if hired, can recruit them back out of the portal and coach them up. Seems to be a high level recruiter and coach, so maybe he can pull one or both of them back. DL and DB will bring back a good bit of experience, so we’re not depleted there, although depth could be a concern.

Having said all of that, I think there is enough talent already in place to make us competitive right away, which will help get recruits to see the potential of this staff and be willing to come here. By competitive, that may mean 6 wins, but I don’t see the six losses as all being double digits as they were this past season. Of course, any sanctions are going to have an impact as well, but they won’t affect game day performance in 2021, and that will have just as much impact on recruiting as any future sanctions.

JMO, IMHO, TIFWIW, etc, etc, etc!
 
We lost players in the portal and I would say we should be looking to gain players in the portal. A few hurt, but I can see us taking 4-5 from the portal this year. We have a good offense, good OL returning. What we need is depth. Another DL, 2 DBs and possibly a LB, maybe one more OL.

We have 3 QBs that could start on most teams, we have good quality and depth at WR, decent TEs, good OL. Not sure why the doom and gloom here. We can make up some ground in the transfer portal this year.
 
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We went 3-7 against all SEC competition.

I'm also not so sure that we lost all our best players. I think this past year was a perfect storm against us, but this year may be the opposite. Will we be great? Probably not, but our talent level is nowhere near the bottom of the barrel. Maybe just maybe, we lost the players that were a cancer to our team (mostly). That would be addition by subtraction.
We will improve. I think 6 perhaps 7 wins is possible.
 
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Recruit itself? We can't get coaches we want, NFL talent is barely apparent, yep we are a football magnet.
I obviously don't mean UT will recruit itself to the level or Alabama or Georgia right now but we'll always be able to recruit better than Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Missiouri regardless of who the coach is, which is why we should average 8 wins with good coaching alone.
 
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As things stand at this moment, IMO, we have the talent on the offense to be competitive against most teams. One of the biggest obstacles to turning a program around is getting the high level skill position people to believe in what you are promoting and commit to that vision on belief alone. We already have several highly rated QBs on the team that appear to be excited about the new staff. The WR class last year could be dynamic and will be here for another 2-3 years minimum. We did take a hit in the RB room, but Beckwith is going to be one to watch, and Small showed flashes in the few carries he got last year. Don’t know how the JC back is going to look. OL also took a hit, but I still believe JP’s philosophy of cross training each player on 2-3 different positions really hurt their performance last year, and we could see better performance there even though less talented.

Defensively, still a lot of questions to be answered, ala HT and QC at LB. If both leave, that’s going to hurt. Hoping the new LB coach from Michigan, if hired, can recruit them back out of the portal and coach them up. Seems to be a high level recruiter and coach, so maybe he can pull one or both of them back. DL and DB will bring back a good bit of experience, so we’re not depleted there, although depth could be a concern.

Having said all of that, I think there is enough talent already in place to make us competitive right away, which will help get recruits to see the potential of this staff and be willing to come here. By competitive, that may mean 6 wins, but I don’t see the six losses as all being double digits as they were this past season. Of course, any sanctions are going to have an impact as well, but they won’t affect game day performance in 2021, and that will have just as much impact on recruiting as any future sanctions.

JMO, IMHO, TIFWIW, etc, etc, etc!
Being so un competitive in most games was more team chemistry and poor coaching. We had halftime leads against Arkansas and Auburn. And as for Kentucky, there’s no way they’ve recruited better than us.

The hidden problem has been all the coaching changes among position coaches and coordinators. Plus all the transfers mean we always seem to have a young team that never seems to improve.
 
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We lost players in the portal and I would say we should be looking to gain players in the portal. A few hurt, but I can see us taking 4-5 from the portal this year. We have a good offense, good OL returning. What we need is depth. Another DL, 2 DBs and possibly a LB, maybe one more OL.

We have 3 QBs that could start on most teams, we have good quality and depth at WR, decent TEs, good OL. Not sure why the doom and gloom here. We can make up some ground in the transfer portal this year.

Totally agree, didn’t even mention the ability to gain depth throughout the portal. They don’t have to be all-stars to add value to the team. No doom and gloom here. 😁
 
I think Heupel is a bright offensive mind and will def improve our lackluster offense but my concern is can he recruit at a high enough level here to succeed. And is it a huge deal even if he can’t recruit to the level of Butch and Pruitt if he does a better job of in game coaching and coaching the kids up. We all know Butch and Pruitt were good recruiters but terrible in game coaches with their recruits especially Pruitt. I do think JH will get 5 full seasons here to turn it around. What are you guys overall expectations for Heupel?
Outside of Gardner, there isnt an elite SEC level recruiter on this staff. I wouldn't look for much excitement on the recruiting front for some time.
 
I think Heupel is a bright offensive mind and will def improve our lackluster offense but my concern is can he recruit at a high enough level here to succeed. And is it a huge deal even if he can’t recruit to the level of Butch and Pruitt if he does a better job of in game coaching and coaching the kids up. We all know Butch and Pruitt were good recruiters but terrible in game coaches with their recruits especially Pruitt. I do think JH will get 5 full seasons here to turn it around. What are you guys overall expectations for Heupel?



Tennessee’s been Soft for far too long
I hope JH can change that
 
This type of thinking has helped us get to the point we are in now. We better see massive improvement in year 2. Why? Do you not realize the position we are in? Massive attrition. Reduced scholarships and who knows what else. The former staff almost buried this program. Expecting JS to get to 9 wins in year 2 is unrealistic given our circumstances and the conference we play in.

Your post proves why this fan base is almost universally mocked as being completely insane.
I was talking about the attitude of the fan base, not myself individually. I am past having any kind of expectations at all. We are down there with Vandy and there’s no reason to think it’s going to change.
 
We lost players in the portal and I would say we should be looking to gain players in the portal. A few hurt, but I can see us taking 4-5 from the portal this year. We have a good offense, good OL returning. What we need is depth. Another DL, 2 DBs and possibly a LB, maybe one more OL.

We have 3 QBs that could start on most teams, we have good quality and depth at WR, decent TEs, good OL. Not sure why the doom and gloom here. We can make up some ground in the transfer portal this year.
What?
 

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