UT Vols football: Jeremy Pruitt is recruiting Tennessee differently than Butch Jones. Will it work?
Interesting read
When it came to recruiting, former
Tennessee football coach
Butch Jones talked a lot about owning the state.
He was a man of his word, too, signing a combined 37 players from Tennessee during his five-year tenure.
In hindsight, however, he might have gotten a little carried away.
“I think a lot of times Tennessee (under Jones) would offer without having seen a kid face to face,” said Austin Price, who covers Tennessee football and recruiting for Rivals’ Volquest.com. “In today’s world of recruiting, so much of it is a copycat deal. ‘Oh, Virginia Tech offered, Georgia offered. Well, we’d better offer him.’ Or, ‘Hey, I hear so-and-so is about to offer, so we better get in before they do.’
“
Jeremy Pruitt is not going about it that way.”
It’s not as though Pruitt, who recently completed his first year as the Vols coach, is completely abandoning the Volunteer state — he signed eight in-state prospects to last year’s class. He has, however, shown a bit more restraint than his predecessor.
