Like I mentioned, each recruit has his own set of reasons, but generally, going across State lines is more miss than hit strategy. I don't look at UT as a sinking ship, although the end of the season could have gone better.
LSU basically only lost a few recruits when Les was canned, which is kind of unusual but the recruits apparently are focusing on marrying the school/program versus a particular coach in this instance. (although I actually really like who they have in place for next year Coach O plus Aranda/Canada = very good imo)
This hits my point on its head. UT simply doesn't have this unless you are from Knoxville or maybe in a location in west TN that is a majority orange. But the midstate area is going to become like Atlanta, where the population is booming with transplants.
We couldn't even land a 5 star who is 20 miles away before our disappointing season started. That kind of kid would have been committed at LSU 2 years ago and would have stuck through a coaching change.