247 rankings

[Fullfillmer]

If you look at the average per recruit we aren’t in the top 10. We are second because we have 23 commits.

Let me guess … you are a rocket scientist in the offseason.

 

[Fullfillmer]

This whole " we are ranked second in the country because we have 23 commits and a lot of 3 stars is a completely false narrative. I am pretty certain that you could not even count 7 of the bottom 3 stars and we would fall all the way from 2nd down to 4th in the country nipping at or slightly above Clemson who is currently 3rd. You remember Clemson - how did they do on the field last season?

By any standard and any way that you slice it --- this is a remarkable recruiting class and a great job by our coaches and staff. This class would already have been in the top 9- 12 in the country last year and we are in MAY. That's MAY people. Don't fall for the bs of our competitors that our average recruit is 89.98 or whatever it is and say Ole Miss average recruit is 90.25 so they are recruiting better than us.

Ole Miss and Kiffin I think have 3 recruits. South Carolina has 5.
Some of our 3 stars will end up 4 stars. This just happened to one of our recruits this week. Others are three stars but are as good or better than our 4 and 5 stars just under the radar guys that our coaches really like. There might be one or two who may be reassigned to other schools where they will get more playing time and have a greater chance for success.

We also have had two previous recruiting cycles where we closed with a bang. I expect a similar closing this season. We are recruiting like gangbusters - it's time to pour on more steam and support all of our great recruits because …….. " They have chosen wisely ".

We have great coaches that know how to coach on the field and know how to develop players for success and to prepare them for the NFL. 2020 will be our second consecutive top 10 recruiting class and if you can string 3 of those together in a row ..... with great coaches .... you typically end up with a top 10 team and program. Buckle up ..... it's about to get real on Rocky Top.

 

[The Original Fade]

Who cares. It doesnt matter. These recruiting services are wrong more than they are right.

You got that backwards. They are usually right - just look at the teams that made the playoffs the last 4 years then go look at their recruiting rankings

 

[The Original Fade]

Highest ranked class in the SEC.....that’s what’s most important. We’re not trying to win recruiting battles with Ohio State. The rest of the SEC is our competition

 

[livefaith]

If you look at the average per recruit we aren’t in the top 10. We are second because we have 23 commits.

Uhh oh. Looks like VN is slowly starting to figure this out.

 

[TheBigOne10]

That's a lot of 3 stars

Blue font? If not, have you even watched a second of some of these guys HUDL film and offer lists? Film and offers, the only two things that matter. “3-star” guys like DaShawn Rucker, Colby Smith, Tiyon Evans, Miles Campbell, and the list goes on and on and on......You wanna know how accurate these rankings are? Look no further than Aaron Willis who plummeted in the 247 update with no football being played or camps being held. It’s a joke. I choose to trust a pretty damn good staff we have who is elite at evaluating talent and developing it.

 

[BigOrangeTrain]

Let me guess … you are a rocket scientist in the offseason.

If I am wrong please show me how.

 

[JustWin1]

Blue font? If not, have you even watched a second of some of these guys HUDL film and offer lists? Film and offers, the only two things that matter. “3-star” guys like DaShawn Rucker, Colby Smith, Tiyon Evans, Miles Campbell, and the list goes on and on and on......You wanna know how accurate these rankings are? Look no further than Aaron Willis who plummeted in the 247 update with no football being played or camps being held. It’s a joke. I choose to trust a pretty damn good staff we have who is elite at evaluating talent and developing it.

Pruitt is 13-12 let’s pump the brakes on the elite evaluations and development talk. Let’s see how this next season plays out before we put all our eggs in the Pruitt basket....

 

[jakez4ut]

You got that backwards. They are usually right - just look at the teams that made the playoffs the last 4 years then go look at their recruiting rankings

Eh.. When your talking about top 100-150 players, and we are with most of those teams, there are fewer misses. Should be expected given the exposure and eyeballs that have evaluated those kinds of players over the course of at least two years.

Where it gets dicey is after those top players, college coaches actually account for a good bit of the evaluations.. It's no secret that lower rated prospects that earn offers from certain coaches(especially if earned at that program's camp) generally get bumps because that offer attracts more eyeballs, and ratings get adjusted. There's also politics involved.. Ingram Dawkins, DT in this class got a 200 spot bump yesterday... Right after UGA started pushing and got him hold of on announcing this past weekend..

So while I think everyone would agree a class of 3*'s is no way to get where you wanna go in the SEC, when coaches offer kids like that, it's usually for a reason...

So I don't necessarily worry about it especially with Pruitt and Co given their history and track record for being good evaluators and developers of talent.

And when if they have an opportunity to upgrade, they will.

I would expect that to be the case with this class considering it's May.. And no where near signing day

 

[TheBigOne10]

Pruitt is 13-12 let’s pump the brakes on the elite evaluations and development talk. Let’s see how this next season plays out before we put all our eggs in the Pruitt basket....

Did I say anything about in-game coaching? The jury is still out on that to a degree. Why do you think other schools come calling at the last minute to get our targets to hold off on their commitment when they are about to pull the trigger? Because they know Pruitt can identify talent with the best of them. And I’m a believer in his ability to develop them, save JG. Nobody is calling Pruitt the next Neyland, but if you can’t see what he building I don’t know what to tell you.

 

[TheBigOne10]

Easy Jake, don’t say Pruitt and Co. can evaluate and develop. Apparently he is only 13-12 to this point LMAO

 

[jakez4ut]

Pruitt is 13-12 let’s pump the brakes on the elite evaluations and development talk. Let’s see how this next season plays out before we put all our eggs in the Pruitt basket....

HC record aside, his reputation as an evaluator and developer of talent have been pretty well established... Former players and peers have been relatively vocal about that part of his resume.

 

[jakez4ut]

Easy Jake, don’t say Pruitt and Co. can evaluate and develop. Apparently he is only 13-12 to this point LMAO

Yeah just addressed that lol

 

[TheBigOne10]

How much of Year 1 can be pinned on Pruitt, other than the Vanderbilt game? Dude inherited a damn dumpster fire at best. Somehow managed to beat Auburn on the road and the best team Kentucky has fielded since Vietnam. I get the frustration with how we finished after that but I mean really.

 

[jakez4ut]

Uhh oh. Looks like VN is slowly starting to figure this out.

Well... There is no ranking based on average. So there's nothing to figure out as to the rankings and how/why we're there.

The average rating is a good benchmark for quality relative to the peer group you're with in the rankings (top 5, top 10, 15 etc)

 

[jakez4ut]

How much of Year 1 can be pinned on Pruitt, other than the Vanderbilt game? Dude inherited a damn dumpster fire at best. Somehow managed to beat Auburn on the road and the best team Kentucky has fielded since Vietnam. I get the frustration with how we finished after that but I mean really.

That Auburn game, and to a lesser extent the UK game are two things that have been good for us on the trail.

Much the same way GSU and BYU were obstacles.

How we finished after that was important....

 

[vegasvolfan]

That’s not the best take. If rankings don’t matter, then why are the teams that consistently have the most success in CF have the highest rated recruiting classes?

In the past four years, three different teams won NCs. See below, where I listed the national champion for each year over the past four years, that team’s completed recruiting class rankings over the most recent four years per Rivals, who held the #1 recruiting class each of those years and what the team’s average recruiting ranking was over those four years.

You will see Clemson won two National Championships over those four years, and they only had one top 5 recruiting class. Over those four years, they averaged a team recruiting ranking of 10 and they did not have a top 5 recruiting class. Same with LSU who won one. Bama who also won one did have four top 2 classes.

Still, look at Tennessee’s 2015 season where we had two top 5 classes, we had the same average as the team that won the most NCs over the past 4 years (Clemson) and had one more top 5 class than Clemson did when they won it, yet we ended up ranked by some as the 79th team.

If you look at the last team, it is our team next year with the same set of data points. If we closed at #2, we would have a .25 higher average ranking over the most four recent completed recruiting classes as our 2015 team, with zero top 5 classes. I bet we do much better than 4-8 if we have the season.

Clearly recruiting is important, and yes # of recruits boosts your total points which is how they rank recruiting classes, but coaching is imperative. My biggest concern is NOT our rankings or the coaches we have. It is the fact we lost Fitz and promoted someone with a relatively week resume in comparison to that of the person who just left and other examples of 1st time promos who have succeeded in the past. This is eerily similar to Butch Jones’ decision regardless of reason for it.

LSU 2019
2016 5th (Bama)
2017 8th (Bama)
2018 14th (Georgia)
2019 3rd (Georgia)
Average rank: 7.5

CLEMSON 2018
2015 4th (USC)
2016 6th (Bama)
2017 22nd (Bama)
2018 8th (Georgia)
Average rank: 10

Alabama 2017
2014 1st
2015 2nd (USC)
2016 1st
2017 1st
Average rank: 1.25

Clemson 2016
2013 14th (Bama)
2014 13th (Bama)
2015 4th (USC)
2016 6th (Bama)
Average rank: 9.25

Tennessee 2015
2014 5th
2015 5th
2016 15th
2017 15th (4-8) (0-8) ranked 79th by Athlon
Average rank: 10

Tennessee 2021
2018 20th
2019 13th
2020 7th
2021 2nd
Average rank: 10.25

 

[TheBigOne10]

That Auburn game, and to a lesser extent the UK game are two things that have been good for us on the trail.

Much the same way GSU and BYU were obstacles.

How we finished after that was important....

The finish was monumental. Now we have to take the next step and win at least 1 of the “big four” this year IMO. Gotta show a continued, tangible upward trajectory.

 

[Fullfillmer]

HC record aside, his reputation as an evaluator and developer of talent have been pretty well established... Former players and peers have been relatively vocal about that part of his resume.

I think Pruitt has 4 rings and has had multiple people that are playing in the NFL mention that he was a great developer of their and others skills. Based on the improvement on defense last season I think that they can coach that side of the ball. I feel Coach Chaney can coach the offense given more consistent qb play. Coach Pruitt was given a team that had just won four games and JG as his qb. That's a sizable reconstruction project.

 

[jakez4ut]

I think Pruitt has 4 rings and has had multiple people that are playing in the NFL mention that he was a great developer of their and others skills. Based on the improvement on defense last season I think that they can coach that side of the ball. I feel Coach Chaney can coach the offense given more consistent qb play. Coach Pruitt was given a team that had just won four games and JG as his qb. That's a sizable reconstruction project.

I think given what the qb situation turned out to be, the staff did an excellent job of managing that whole thing considering how we were about to finish.

Agree about the defense. DL was a huge question mark and by the end of the season it was a strength.

 

[jakez4ut]

The finish was monumental. Now we have to take the next step and win at least 1 of the “big four” this year IMO. Gotta show a continued, tangible upward trajectory.

Yeah.. It's time.

 

[jakez4ut]

16 min mark starts some more Tennessee talk. Pate has pretty much been in the mark when discussing us and this class and the outlook for the future.

 

[photovol]

Pruitt's getting ready to field some good football teams, teams that all Vol fans can be proud of.......and the rest of the SEC is put on notice

 

[Defcon5]

They got dropped and will probably drop even more before it’s all said and done

Sign early you drop. CJP & Tee just need to fill our needs. Get guys who can hit the field.

 

[MemphisVol77]

Clearly recruiting is important, and yes # of recruits boosts your total points which is how they rank recruiting classes, but coaching is imperative. My biggest concern is NOT our rankings or the coaches we have. It is the fact we lost Fitz and promoted someone with a relatively week resume in comparison to that of the person who just left and other examples of 1st time promos who have succeeded in the past. This is eerily similar to Butch Jones’ decision regardless of reason for i

Who have we announced to replace Fitz?

Good post but I don't quite share your sentiment or level of concern. I see three probably scenarios playing out in regards to our strength & conditioning coach.

A. Pruitt brings in a homerun hire that assauges our concerns, similar to how he brought Chaney in.

B. Pruitt promotes from within. I find this most likely at this point.

C. Pruitt brings in an unproven outside hire.

I find option A unlikely at this point, B probable, and C very unlikely.

Was that guy Szernszen Butch gave the technical title to an outside hire or promoted from within? Regardless of which, he was unproven and clearly unqualified.

With Pruitt's previous DC tenures at Fl-St, GA, & AL I find it highly unlikely that Fitz didn't directly answer to Pruitt's purview, or that Pruitt would fail to properly vet a new hire/promotion. Whoever our Strength Coach is will operate within the confines of a system and answer to Pruitt. We're not going to have a Juice Bar option C play out again. Butch didn't have a process for us to trust...(Hangs head in shame, I was a Butch sunshine pumper).

More reason to trust Pruitt that Butch couldn't claim, is Pruitt's history of developing talent at all stops during his DC career. Pruitt fielded Top-10 elite defenses at Fl-St, GA, & AL. He proved at all three stops he could produce a Top-10 defense with 7-8 3rd year players rated 4*'s or better, with the other players being 3* or projects, as his starters. A couple of those elite D's weren't 5* heavy. I believe he only had one 5* one of the years he fielded an elite defense.

We don't quite yet have the star rating & experience that Pruitt fielded elite defenses at previous stops during his career. That's actually a positive indicator of the job Pruitt is doing. He showed major incremental improvement from 2018-2019 having to utilize less experienced players and more 3*'s than his previous stops.