Team talent

[LouderVol]

I think we are definitely more talented.

Butch had a couple guys who would start everywhere. But once you got to the 2s we fell apart quickly.

we still have those guys who would start everywhere like Butch had, but our depth pieces are much better.

you can look at the results if nothing else. beat bama twice, and florida twice. Georgia Butch has the slight edge over Heupel there, but that was the start of the Smart era, not the current machine it is now.

think of all those firsts under Heupel. SEC road wins, SEC west wins, Bama. that doesn't come without maximizing the talent.

even on paper we are MUCH more talented. the blue chip ratio is much higher now if you believe in that.

If you averaged all the players on the team Jones best overall team average player would have been ranked #833 in the nation.
Heupel last year, average player on the team was #397.
Heupel's 2025 class average player was #252. in fact, Heupel's lowest recruit last year was better than Butch's average player.

we are leaps and bounds more talented any way you look at it.

 

[HooahVol]

Tonight's NFL draft probably gives us some insight. These are our guys in the draft with draft projections:

• Edge James Pearce Jr.: Round 2 to the Seattle Seahawks (No. 52 overall)
• RB Dylan Sampson: Round 3 to the Pittsburgh Steelers (No. 83 overall)
• WR Dont'e Thornton Jr.: Round 6 to the Baltimore Ravens (No. 203 overall)
• DT Elijah Simmons: Round 7 to the San Francisco 49ers (No. 252 overall)
• DL Omarr Lott: 3rd or 4th round
• Center Cooper: Mays: 6th or 7th round
• WR Bru McCoy: 6th round to the Browns projected
• DT Elijah Simmons: 7th round, possibly undrafted.

I personally disagree with Yahoo sports where I copied and pasted this and think Pearce will be a 1st rounder, but regardless decent talent. But, when you consider Georgia has 3 projected 1st rounders and 13 overall expected to be drafted and Ohio State has 4-6 projected 1st rounders with 15 overall expected to be drafted it really shows we are not elite, yet. It does take time though. We just need to keep winning.

 

[HooahVol]

Also, and I hesitate to post this because I love Heup, but Pruitt in his 3.5 years had a total of 59 Tennessee football players were drafted into the NFL. This includes 16 first-round picks and 22 All-Americans. But before anyone runs with that number remember he was 16-19 as a coach so he obviously did not know what to do with talent.

 

[PEPPERJAX]

I think we are definitely more talented.

Butch had a couple guys who would start everywhere. But once you got to the 2s we fell apart quickly.

we still have those guys who would start everywhere like Butch had, but our depth pieces are much better.

you can look at the results if nothing else. beat bama twice, and florida twice. Georgia Butch has the slight edge over Heupel there, but that was the start of the Smart era, not the current machine it is now.

think of all those firsts under Heupel. SEC road wins, SEC west wins, Bama. that doesn't come without maximizing the talent.

even on paper we are MUCH more talented. the blue chip ratio is much higher now if you believe in that.

If you averaged all the players on the team Jones best overall team average player would have been ranked #833 in the nation.
Heupel last year, average player on the team was #397.
Heupel's 2025 class average player was #252. in fact, Heupel's lowest recruit last year was better than Butch's average player.

we are leaps and bounds more talented any way you look at it.

Agree with this post. It's going to be interesting moving forward if Heupel is able to reload like other top tier programs have in recent years or is he going to need that transition year of 8-4 like we saw in 2023 to make a playoff run the following season. I am excluding year one on purpose but the past 3 seasons we have seen 11, 9, and 10 wins. That is pretty impressive especially when you consider what he inherited. The program is in year five now under JH and I don't expect a championship this year, however, it wouldn't shock me if Heupel is able to work some magic with this roster and shock some folks. He certainly has more talent to work with now.

 

[ftsandersvol]

All I know is Heupel has done something right.

 

[Brave Volunteer]

All I know is Heupel has done something right.

The more accurate thing to say is Huepel has done some things right.

 

[MontyPython]

Question to everyone on the forum. Looking at this team's overall talent, do you think Huepel and his staff have significantly elevated our overall team talent above what it was under Butch Jones or Jeremy Pruitt? Now, I'm not talking about where it was after we lost all those players in the portal when Huep took the job. I'm talking about the team's talent overall under Butch and overall under Pruitt. Has our current staff recruited significantly better than the previous 2 staffs?

Without a proven QB and given the losses we had to graduation and the portal I’m thinking we’re looking at an 8-4 record. But maybe coach pulls out another Hendon hooker situation… we’ve got some talented QBs, but just not proven. I’m not expecting much so probably will start drinking heavily beginning late August.

 

[Bigorangefaninga]

Also, and I hesitate to post this because I love Heup, but Pruitt in his 3.5 years had a total of 59 Tennessee football players were drafted into the NFL. This includes 16 first-round picks and 22 All-Americans. But before anyone runs with that number remember he was 16-19 as a coach so he obviously did not know what to do with talent.

What?? TN since 2010 has only had 6 1st round draft picks combined. Since 2015 we have 2 total 1st rounders. Since 2017 UT has had a total of 26 drafted. Are you taking stats from Bama as Pruitt’s?

 

[PC Jr.]

How many 2026 NFL draft picks are on this roster?

This will be rebuilding year. People need to stop with the over the top expectations. But, like I said before, I like all the opinions. It’s fun and means nothing. No harm no foul with April college football talk.

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

Based on the 247 talent composite, which comes out every year, the answer is, not significantly. He is however MUCH, MUCH better at getting players to play up to and above their talent level.

2024 College Football Team Talent Composite

In order to create the most comprehensive Team Recruiting Ranking without any notion of bias, 247Sports Team Recruiting Ranking is solely based on the 247Sports Composite Rating.

247sports.com

 

[lukeneyland]

Question to everyone on the forum. Looking at this team's overall talent, do you think Huepel and his staff have significantly elevated our overall team talent above what it was under Butch Jones or Jeremy Pruitt? Now, I'm not talking about where it was after we lost all those players in the portal when Huep took the job. I'm talking about the team's talent overall under Butch and overall under Pruitt. Has our current staff recruited significantly better than the previous 2 staffs?

Undoubtedly. Our defense has gotten extremely fast. We are on the right trajectory but Heupel needs more financial support

 

[ftsandersvol]

The more accurate thing to say is Huepel has done some things right.

 

[CINCYVOL]

Pruitts players are all gone. E shall see what Bobby Huepels got

 

[Remy]

If we revert back to losing to our big 3, Bama, UF, and UGA, then it will make me begin to question everything again.

 

[ALLVOL 4LIFE]

Butch was a star gazer. His classes was far better on paper than on the field. Pruitt knew talent. He went after many of the big recruits that everyone was after (unlike Butch, who recruited not to lose. He didn’t fight for upper tier talent), but Pruitt has no idea how manage a program. He should never show his face in public again…cheat like they did and still couldn’t win.

Heupel and staff have done an excellent job filling their needs. They have recruited decent for sure, but I don’t care if the entire team are walk-on‘s as long as we keep winning. I’ll take the last 4 years over the previous 20 anytime.

 

[UTFranklinVol]

Butch was a star gazer. His classes was far better on paper than on the field. Pruitt knew talent. He went after many of the big recruits that everyone was after (unlike Butch, who recruited not to lose. He didn’t fight for upper tier talent), but Pruitt has no idea how manage a program. He should never show his face in public again…cheat like they did and still couldn’t win.

Heupel and staff have done an excellent job filling their needs. They have recruited decent for sure, but I don’t care if the entire team are walk-on‘s as long as we keep winning. I’ll take the last 4 years over the previous 20 anytime.

Butch didn't fight for upper tier talent? He has the highest ranked recruiting classes of all coaches since Fulmer.

What he would do is LIE to them and promise them things to get them on campus and then totally mismanage them and the team. not to mention some of those top tier talent guys have a real prima donna attitude if you aren't a good coach and know how to manage them.

Butch will never survive in the era of NIL and the portal when a player can bolt as soon as they smell the BS coming off of Jones.

 

[General Jack]

To me, Jones’s unforgivable sin was not using Jalen Hurd and Alvin Kamara together to wreak havoc on opposing defenses. I will never forgive him for that.

And running read option with Justin Worley.

 

[volbound1700]

Butch was a star gazer. His classes was far better on paper than on the field. Pruitt knew talent. He went after many of the big recruits that everyone was after (unlike Butch, who recruited not to lose. He didn’t fight for upper tier talent), but Pruitt has no idea how manage a program. He should never show his face in public again…cheat like they did and still couldn’t win.

Heupel and staff have done an excellent job filling their needs. They have recruited decent for sure, but I don’t care if the entire team are walk-on‘s as long as we keep winning. I’ll take the last 4 years over the previous 20 anytime.

Butch Jones had a year or two were the stars aligned (people forget this) for him.

He had a lot of highly related in-state talent and legacy recruits in those classes. We haven't seen that much luck with Pruitt or Heupel. Despite that, Heupel is the better recruiter.

Issue that people have on this forum is that Heupel can't recruit at the level of Nick Saban or Kirby Smart...

I do think Tennessee has some NIL issues. I am not sure what is causing it. Perhaps we invested too hard into players like Nico. A lot of our big NIL grabs have been flopping.

One thing impressive about Saban and Smart is not just that they bring in top talent but rarely is this top talent underperforming. Other schools like LSU, Tennessee, Florida, etc. are bring in 4 and 5 stars that end up not playing at that level or getting drafted.

 

[Woodlawn VOL]

Also, and I hesitate to post this because I love Heup, but Pruitt in his 3.5 years had a total of 59 Tennessee football players were drafted into the NFL. This includes 16 first-round picks and 22 All-Americans. But before anyone runs with that number remember he was 16-19 as a coach so he obviously did not know what to do with talent.

Heupel has won 30 games in 3 years and went to the playoffs last year. Like you said he bested Pruitt in the most important stat and that is the win-loss column. GBO

 

[SGMVols]

Butch didn't fight for upper tier talent? He has the highest ranked recruiting classes of all coaches since Fulmer.

What he would do is LIE to them and promise them things to get them on campus and then totally mismanage them and the team. not to mention some of those top tier talent guys have a real prima donna attitude if you aren't a good coach and know how to manage them.

Butch will never survive in the era of NIL and the portal when a player can bolt as soon as they smell the BS coming off of Jones.

The only reason Butch had “top 5” classes was because he signed 32 guys a year. You can’t do that anymore.

 

[VOLINVONORE]

More talented coach.

Heupel has done with less than any coach I remember except maybe Doug Dickey. Bill Battle did will with the talent he inherited, but he Was not able to recruit SEC caliber players. Majors inherited a dumpster fire and it took him a few years to recruit a stockpile of players.

 

[Brave Volunteer]

Heupel has done with less than any coach I remember except maybe Doug Dickey. Bill Battle did will with the talent he inherited, but he Was not able to recruit SEC caliber players. Majors inherited a dumpster fire and it took him a few years to recruit a stockpile of players.

Going into year 5, that's not a compliment anymore. Part of being a great head coach is great recruiting and this is the biggest glaring weakness that I see for Huepel and his staff. Second would be his teams play poorly disciplined.

 

[casual-observer]

The 247 team talent composite is what you are looking for. You can look up by year.

Most years since 2010 we have had around 35 4 and 5 star players. The low mark was in 2022 with 26, and the high mark was 2024 with 41.

So, we bottomed out after Pruitt left due to transfers and the sanctions, and CJH has done a great job getting us back to where we were and higher than we have been the last decade.

Rivals has a team composite as well. I believe the numbers by years are...

Team	Composite Ranking
'09 - Kiffin	8
'10 - Dooley	9
'11 - Dooley	13
'12 - Dooley	17
'13 - Jones	23
'14 - Jones	6
'15 - Jones	4
'16 - Jones	13
'17 - Jones	17
'18 - Pruitt	22
'19 - Pruitt	13
'20 - Pruitt	10
'21 - Heupel	26
'22 - Heupel	15
'23 - Heupel	11
'24 - Heupel	16

The numbers seem to support the general thread opinions:

-Heupel is recruiting on par with most others (minus the stellar two years with Jones)
-Heupel is able to squeeze a lot more out of the same talent
-Jones squandered what talent he had. And they made him look better than he was

 

[Bigorangefaninga]

Going into year 5, that's not a compliment anymore. Part of being a great head coach is great recruiting and this is the biggest glaring weakness that I see for Huepel and his staff. Second would be his teams play poorly disciplined.

Umm…. are you very forgetful or do you not understand Heup has also been coaching under recruiting restrictions? He has less visits to give, less scholarships to give. Just figured I’d throw that out there since you seem to have no idea about anything.

 

[Brave Volunteer]

Umm…. are you very forgetful or do you not understand Heup has also been coaching under recruiting restrictions? He has less visits to give, less scholarships to give. Just figured I’d throw that out there since you seem to have no idea about anything.

Excuses, excuses.