'19 CA LB Henry To'oto'o (Tennessee Signee)

[The Artful Dodger]

i agree with pretty much all this except the part about it not being realistic to expect more.

the reason you can/should expect more is because we have landed all those other guys, and we did put ourselves in a good position to land another guy like HT. it wasn't unrealistic to think we could/should land him. and it's ok to be disappointed if we don't get him, especially if he goes to Bama.

just like it was disappointing to watch Eboigbe and Bogle both commit to Bama. or Norton to GA.

that's ok. i think we're doing a good job of recruiting. we do need to do a better job of finishing with some of these types of guys. it's clear we're getting there, as evidenced by the names you've mentioned above....but getting all those kids...in addition to the eboigbe's, bogles, nortons, and To'oto'o's of the world is the difference between being middle of the pack to getting on the heels of Bama/GA sooner than later.

and it's ok to acknowledge that, while at the same time acknowledging that this class is still a very good one, and it addresses several big needs, and will be a good step forward in our rebuild.

but it's a step.....you start landing the "in addition to's"...then you're taking leaps.

Bama loses out on recruits, Georgia loses out on recruits, LSU, Clemson, Oklahoma, etc and they all still have top classes. My point is that people need to temper the disappointment when players like Henry T. and Crouch were long shots to begin with and we pulled more players like that than a team that's gone 4-8 and 5-7 should have. Basically, be happy for what we have instead of making an opinion about an entire class based off players that were long shots to begin with.

To your post, what I am saying is that we have landed some of the "in addition to's", and we got more of those than our recent on-field performance dictates we should. Nobody gets all of the "in addition to's," especially a team that has struggled like we have.

 

[Volfan76]

He will close the gap even more when we start winning. I honestly think we have over achieved on some of these guys. How many 5-7 teams can have a possible top 10-15 class that includes 3-5* recruits as well as several high 4*'s?

Few if any...but how ow many 5-7 teams have a top 10 budget, facilities, money invested in coaching, and fan base that we have? Just because we have had a low ROI in recent years, doesn't mean there is an excuse to not have a respectable return going forward. Even Dooley consistently had top 20 recruiting classes here. There should be a floor for a staff with these resources, regardless of record from the previous year.

 

[jakez4ut]

Robin Hood: Men In Tights was a great parody.

thanks...lol

 

[Ulysees E. McGill]

Few if any...but how ow many 5-7 teams have a top 10 budget, facilities, money invested in coaching, and fan base that we have? Just because we have had a low ROI in recent years, doesn't mean there is an excuse to not have a respectable return going forward. Even Dooley consistently had top 20 recruiting classes here. There should be a floor for a staff with these resources, regardless of record from the previous year.

If this staff can't get them here..NOBODY..would have...period.

 

[InstrumentalVol]

LOL how are some of you mad that we have the 15th class when we are going through the literal worst stretch of UT football ever? Notre Dame, a team that was in the CFB Playoff currently has the 14th class. I totally get wanting to have a high numbered class but when we have gone 4-8 and 5-7, losing to VANDY for 3 years in a row, its about the evaluation of the talent by our coaches that matters, nothing else. GBO.

 

[The Artful Dodger]

LOL how are some of you mad that we have the 15th class when we are going through the literal worst stretch of UT football ever? Notre Dame, a team that was in the CFB Playoff currently has the 14th class. I totally get wanting to have a high numbered class but when we have gone 4-8 and 5-7, losing to VANDY for 3 years in a row, its about the evaluation of the talent by our coaches that matters, nothing else. GBO.

You would think that this would be easy to grasp, but I guess some people expect us to recruit like we have a couple recent SEC Titles under our belt.

 

[jakez4ut]

Bama loses out on recruits, Georgia loses out on recruits, LSU, Clemson, Oklahoma, etc and they all still have top classes. My point is that people need to temper the disappointment when players like Henry T. and Crouch were long shots to begin with and we pulled more players like that than a team that's gone 4-8 and 5-7 should have. Basically, be happy for what we have instead of making an opinion about an entire class based off players that were long shots to begin with.

i still don't buy it. and how much of a long shot is HT really if we're in his top 2??? that's not a long shot. you're THERE. we were THERE with Bogle. we were THERE with eboigbe..........

all i'm saying is you can acknowledge both. it's not an either or proposition to me.

i'm very happy with the players we have coming in.

i'm also very disappointed we didn't get eboigbe, bogle, HT, Norton etc....and i can feel that way because i know we're good enough to get guys like Keyton, Crouch, Morris, Wright, Mcollough, etc........

 

[Mtnvol80]

If this staff can't get them here..NOBODY..would have...period.

Except Saban. Charges and bags of cash. Amirite?

 

[Ulysees E. McGill]

@Mtnvol80

And 5 National Championships along with being in the playoffs with a chance to win a NC...EVERY FREAKIN YEAR. It is hard to compete with that, it takes a special kind of person to accept the challenge...It looks like HT is just another frontrunner bandwagoner going for the easy path...

It is hard to not be that person.

 

[swchandler1988]

Except Saban. Charges and bags of cash. Amirite?

Te be fair we do the same thing. Gotta win. Pretty comical back in the Bruce Pearl years to see Chism, Tyler Smith, Wade, all those guys, driving around their own customized chargers

 

[bignewt]

i still don't buy it. and how much of a long shot is HT really if we're in his top 2??? that's not a long shot. you're THERE. we were THERE with Bogle. we were THERE with eboigbe..........

all i'm saying is you can acknowledge both. it's not an either or proposition to me.

i'm very happy with the players we have coming in.

i'm also very disappointed we didn't get eboigbe, bogle, HT, Norton etc....and i can feel that way because i know we're good enough to get guys like Keyton, Crouch, Morris, Wright, Mcollough, etc........

The main point is you can't get them all, especially when you go 5-7 the previous year, and you guys can talk about budgets and facilities and fan base all you want but hype matters.

 

[Ulysees E. McGill]

The main point is you can't get them all, especially when you go 5-7 the previous year, and you guys can talk about budgets and facilities and fan base all you want but hype matters.

It really does...With the advent of the social media age..We picked the absolute worst time for the program to go in the crapper.

 

[BigOrangeVols]

i still don't buy it. and how much of a long shot is HT really if we're in his top 2??? that's not a long shot. you're THERE. we were THERE with Bogle. we were THERE with eboigbe..........

all i'm saying is you can acknowledge both. it's not an either or proposition to me.

i'm very happy with the players we have coming in.

i'm also very disappointed we didn't get eboigbe, bogle, HT, Norton etc....and i can feel that way because i know we're good enough to get guys like Keyton, Crouch, Morris, Wright, Mcollough, etc........

We didn't get Wright

 

[swchandler1988]

We didn't get Wright

You and your Butch Jones profile pic can get the f*** out.

 

[Devo182]

247 article up this morning saying that with new rules and whatnot going on both Solomon AND Gibbs could be eligible this fall. More likely just Solomon but Gibbs could also get a waiver, it's possible.

Seems really unlikely still. Dont see him falling under "safety, health, or well-being"

 

[jakez4ut]

The main point is you can't get them all, especially when you go 5-7 the previous year, and you guys can talk about budgets and facilities and fan base all you want but hype matters.

i get it. and i'm not upset or making a referendum on this class because of who we didn't get or anything.

i just think it's ok to acknowledge both sides of it. and i understand that we didn't get some of those kids simply because we haven't done anything of note yet that would give more kids of that ilk something to "believe in". the pitch only goes so far. results matter.

agree about the hype, which i hate doing. i think we have an opportunity with the upcoming schedule to do just that though, and still believe the 20 cycle is going to be the one that puts this program back on level footing with the rest of the conference.

 

[jakez4ut]

We didn't get Wright

....yet.

 

[Devo182]

Like the gpa but the fields were so offended, they enrolled their daughter into the school two weeks after it happened. It’s BS.

"the fields"? No. A single guy. Personally. Can't project 1 person's perception of his well-being or mental health onto another.

 

[TideWarrior]

I think what Pruitt is doing is great and this is coming from a UA fan that hopes we get him when Saban retires and yes I prefer him over Dabo.

Butch seemed to focus on top players that were legacies and went after other players where he did not try to go head to head with the big time programs. Maybe every now and then he may have stepped out of his comfort zone but his approach was very low risk and went after players he had a legit shot to bring in. Even then no matter what you do on the trail you only get so many years to keep saying you are rebuilding. Eventually you have to produce results. Pruitt on the other hand he will go head to head with anyone in the country. Yes a little more risky considering you may yield less in the return with all the resources you put into those recruits but he understands that for UT to compete with the best in the SEC and country UT has the get the same players. I believe Wright will end up at UT and with Crouch and few others Butch would have not pulled those type of players.

Again Pruitt is one of the best recruiters in the country and considering what he is doing with the recent history of the UT program is pretty impressive.

 

[WilliamDuVOL]

@TideWarrior

Any more word from the UA websites on this one?

Seems to be a lot of doom and gloom here.

 

[swchandler1988]

I just can’t wait to see what happens when/if we win 7-9 games this next season, and adding Tee on the trail along with Neids. Should be fun

 

[gorockytop98]

I think what Pruitt is doing is great and this is coming from a UA fan that hopes we get him when Saban retires and yes I prefer him over Dabo.

Butch seemed to focus on top players that were legacies and went after other players where he did not try to go head to head with the big time programs. Maybe every now and then he may have stepped out of his comfort zone but his approach was very low risk and went after players he had a legit shot to bring in. Even then no matter what you do on the trail you only get so many years to keep saying you are rebuilding. Eventually you have to produce results. Pruitt on the other hand he will go head to head with anyone in the country. Yes a little more risky considering you may yield less in the return with all the resources you put into those recruits but he understands that for UT to compete with the best in the SEC and country UT has the get the same players. I believe Wright will end up at UT and with Crouch and few others Butch would have not pulled those type of players.

Again Pruitt is one of the best recruiters in the country and considering what he is doing with the recent history of the UT program is pretty impressive.

I ignored everything after "I prefer Pruitt over Dabo."

That's a really bad opinion and you should feel bad.

 

[VOLuptuousBOOMS]

I think what Pruitt is doing is great and this is coming from a UA fan that hopes we get him when Saban retires and yes I prefer him over Dabo.

Butch seemed to focus on top players that were legacies and went after other players where he did not try to go head to head with the big time programs. Maybe every now and then he may have stepped out of his comfort zone but his approach was very low risk and went after players he had a legit shot to bring in. Even then no matter what you do on the trail you only get so many years to keep saying you are rebuilding. Eventually you have to produce results. Pruitt on the other hand he will go head to head with anyone in the country. Yes a little more risky considering you may yield less in the return with all the resources you put into those recruits but he understands that for UT to compete with the best in the SEC and country UT has the get the same players. I believe Wright will end up at UT and with Crouch and few others Butch would have not pulled those type of players.

Again Pruitt is one of the best recruiters in the country and considering what he is doing with the recent history of the UT program is pretty impressive.

Leave it to the Alabama guy to have a better pulse of our program than 95% of Vol fans.

Good post @TideWarrior. But we ain’t giving Pruitt back.

 

[BucVol98]

I think what Pruitt is doing is great and this is coming from a UA fan that hopes we get him when Saban retires and yes I prefer him over Dabo.

Butch seemed to focus on top players that were legacies and went after other players where he did not try to go head to head with the big time programs. Maybe every now and then he may have stepped out of his comfort zone but his approach was very low risk and went after players he had a legit shot to bring in. Even then no matter what you do on the trail you only get so many years to keep saying you are rebuilding. Eventually you have to produce results. Pruitt on the other hand he will go head to head with anyone in the country. Yes a little more risky considering you may yield less in the return with all the resources you put into those recruits but he understands that for UT to compete with the best in the SEC and country UT has the get the same players. I believe Wright will end up at UT and with Crouch and few others Butch would have not pulled those type of players.

Again Pruitt is one of the best recruiters in the country and considering what he is doing with the recent history of the UT program is pretty impressive.

Bad take and both scenarios are unlikely

 

[McGeesPub]

Few if any...but how ow many 5-7 teams have a top 10 budget, facilities, money invested in coaching, and fan base that we have? Just because we have had a low ROI in recent years, doesn't mean there is an excuse to not have a respectable return going forward. Even Dooley consistently had top 20 recruiting classes here. There should be a floor for a staff with these resources, regardless of record from the previous year.

Bingo. Programs with our resources don’t generally go 5-7.

And it’s not like that 5-7 record happens in a vacuum. We SHOULD have been in a bowl - maybe not from the vantage point of September, but definitely after we beat UK. It’s like that ridiculous term, “complementary football.” You’ve got to ensure you win games to bring the recruits. As the coaching staff, you don’t get a handicap for a losing record when you frankly shouldn’t have had one.