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

[peaygolf]

That's fair. But it depends on how you define "respectable." Eight, nine wins? Beating USC, KY, Mizzou, and Vandy regularly? Not getting blown out?

I guess it would depend on each persons definition. Mine......8 wins this year and improving against the “big boys”
That would be respectable in my eyes for ‘19.
JMO

 

[yourstruly23]

The in-home is on according to Toot's dad. Saban going Thursday. Not sure when Pruitt is.
- Ramey

 

[The Artful Dodger]

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 fact that we were considered the leader Henry T.'s signature for whatever amount of time that was should be lauded. Pruitt, Nieds, and company did tremendous work to get that close. Based off reputation and past recruiting stats nobody could have done better with this class than Tennessee's. It just feels like people are faulting Tennessee for having a worse class then some of the recent perennial powers, when nobody else could have done better after our recent on field results.

Nobody wants to admit how bad it has gotten, and I hear a lot of "Tennessee recruits itself." Well, it does to an extent, but after over a decade of bad football the school doesn't recruit itself like it did even 5 years ago when we were still relatively new to this whole sucking thing. Pruitt is digging out of the hole. Sorry its not as fast/impressive as some would like, but you have to keep expectations reasonable.

 

[Crazy Ivan]

We didn't get Wright

Jake didn't say we did. He said we are good enough "to get" Wright, not that we had already gotten Wright.

 

[Souce]

The in-home is on according to Toot's dad. Saban going Thursday. Not sure when Pruitt is.
- Ramey

I thought Saban's in-home was yesterday and ours is tomorrow.

 

[swchandler1988]

For stating the obvious? Nice

Really? You’re obviously just trying to instigate by saying something like “we didn’t get Wright” when it’s literally one week away from being done, and has looked that way for half a year. Don’t act like you didn’t know what you were doing

 

[OGbabyaviVol]

The in-home is on according to Toot's dad. Saban going Thursday. Not sure when Pruitt is.
- Ramey

Pruitt is going in-home Sunday morning and won’t leave until 11:59 that night.

 

[jakez4ut]

But all the more likely some of those guys will be studs. Its a give and take. I think with the new transfer rules they should still allow the over-signing.

what good would it do to recruit 35 guys if 15 leave?

makes no sense. and just not fair to the players.

some of those studs you speak of are the very ones that left. Preston Williams, Vic Wharton, Jalen Hurd etc....

 

[engineerVOL]

I've always thought if I put much stock into what Simonton says, I was just asking to get burned. The dude is a Gator, and hates UT; he let's it show all the time, in the most subtle ways. I've always taken what he says with a grain of salt, or not at all. I can't believe Hubbs hired the guy.

Literally looks exactly like Fortenberry.

 

[SSVol]

That must be why all these 2 and 3 star teams are winning National Championships.

Who said anything about 2 and 3 stars winning championships? I said that the quality of the class is the result of the talent (stars) and player development (coaching) of the entire class. It isn't logical to pick one or two isolated failures...HT, maybe...and declare the entire class a loss.

And it's a good thing that Rick Barnes realizes that player development can get more out of a roster.

 

[wrangler]

Jobs, money, playing time, etc don't matter in this one as much as the Polynomial connection.

It all factors in.

True. My point is that what UT and Bama can offer is similar. We don't offer the Poly connection and that's a big deal for his family feeling comfortable. Add in recent success and they outweigh our favorable depth chart. HT can't declare for 3 years so possibly sitting a bit doesn't really hurt him...see various Bama players who wait their turn , get a ring or two then ball out for a year and get drafted high.

Better possibility for success and less risk of injury in their formula right now...sucks but gonna take us a couple more years to be there.

Now I'm wondering if you realized what you wrote.

 

[Devo182]

I thought Saban's in-home was yesterday and ours is tomorrow.

Word yesterday by 247 was only that Sabans was "end of week". Let's hope Pruitt pulls a Friday visit and crashes there the whole weekend!

 

[Type Orange+]

The in-home is on according to Toot's dad. Saban going Thursday. Not sure when Pruitt is.
- Ramey

 

[jakez4ut]

The fact that we were considered the leader Henry T.'s signature for whatever amount of time that was should be lauded. Pruitt, Nieds, and company did tremendous work to get that close. Based off reputation and past recruiting stats nobody could have done better with this class than Tennessee's.

agree about the job they've done in recruiting HT. they've done an equally good job with several other prospects in this class as well. as for the last part, that's just an opinion, fact is we don't know if anyone could do better/worse. it has been said, even by Pruitt, that it needs to be better, especially at closing.

It just feels like people are faulting Tennessee for having a worse class then some of the recent perennial powers, when nobody else could have done better after our recent on field results.

i don't think i've done that in any of my posts on the subject. and again, we don't know "nobody else could've done better".

Nobody wants to admit how bad it has gotten, and I hear a lot of "Tennessee recruits itself." Well, it does to an extent, but after over a decade of bad football the school doesn't recruit itself like it did even 5 years ago when we were still relatively new to this whole sucking thing. Pruitt is digging out of the hole. Sorry its not as fast/impressive as some would like, but you have to keep expectations reasonable.

i think everyone that's associated with UT is well aware of just how bad it's been. as for the recruit's itself comments, i agree. i generally interpret that, though, to mean that no prospect walks away from TN thinking "well, they don't have this, they dont' have that...". to me, "recruits itself" is in regards to the tangibles...faciliites, resources, support, tradition etc....we'll compare favorably with just about anyone on that stuff. so i don't get to bent out of shape about it.

as for the speed of the rebuild, i think most level headed folks realized that given the issues on the line of scrimmage, 3 years was probably the most widely accepted time frame. and that would just get you (hopefully) even with some of the upper tier programs. not necessarily better.

as i've said, i just don't see why this has to be an ultimatum type argument. is this class good? yep, very good. especially at DB and OL.

is it gooe enough to simply keep pace with the upper teams in the league? no, it's not. is it good enough to get even with programs like USCe, KY, Vandy, MO? yeah, probably.

but that's not the bar. and there's nothing wrong with saying that. just like there's nothing wrong with saying this is going to be a really good class, no matter who else we get. they're both true.

 

[jakez4ut]

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.

tough to say "shouldn't have had one". i think the only game that really surprised anyone was winning the Auburn game.

past that, aside from the 3 non conf automatic w's and 3 automatic conf. l's, no one was going to be surprised if we won/lost against WVU, Vandy, MO, USCe, UK etc...

that said, the USCe game is the one that you had, and didn't get. so i guess i see what you're saying.

even having said that though, this staff wasn't out there over promising on the results. i think they were almost painfully up front about the expectations for 2018. so while results on the field may still wind up mattering to a recruit, and for some they did, it shouldn't have been a surprise.

so on that front, i dont' think they were trying to handicap themselves in that regard. as fans and people looking at the program from the outside, i think what the record probably is more than anything is a reinforcement of the perception of the program, and how perspective is formed. we haven't been very good, and these really good players have options. they can choose to go to a plug and play championship caliber program or htey can choose not to.

all that said, i think it is important for that perception to shift, and 2020 presents an opportunity to do that. hey is in the barn for the most part for the 19 class, and can't change the record now. so we are where we are. we have a good class coming in, and we need a better one coming next cycle. winning more games in 2020 would help with that.

 

[tatervol]

Kyle Phillips? Trey Smith? Nigel Warrior? Jonathan Kongbo? There are other examples but I explained one “legacy class” and the disingenuous nature of that term. K-Mac’s class wasn’t built on just him and didn’t Ole Nick put on the Crimson Blazer and helicopter in to see Trey Smith at his high school? He and Urban share a Whopper later on? Yeah Saban and Urban outrecruited our former coach...like they did everybody else. Note to self, quit advocating for Bammers on our board. They all have their inner Surge.

Warrior was a legacy ... and Khalil McKenzie was absolutely the crown jewel of his class.

 

[LA Vol]

UT's in-home was scheduled for Thursday. One sure thing about recruiting-- things are constantly in flux.

 

[reVOLution33]

Mastercraft HQ is just 40 min south of Knoxville...

So are like 3 other boat companies... My home town.

 

[Smokeytom]

what good would it do to recruit 35 guys if 15 leave?

makes no sense. and just not fair to the players.

some of those studs you speak of are the very ones that left. Preston Williams, Vic Wharton, Jalen Hurd etc....

Yes but the you are still getting more chances to swing for the fences and knock one out. Also tough to compare how attrition would play with Pruitt who players seem to really love compared to Lyin' Lyle. Give Pruitt 30 at bats and he's going to knock more out of the park than Butch every time. The ones who stay would be getting much better coaching as well.

I also feel like the NCAA has more players jumping in the portal than ever before. So attrition seems at an all time high, no?

 

[jwilliams]

what good would it do to recruit 35 guys if 15 leave?

makes no sense. and just not fair to the players.

some of those studs you speak of are the very ones that left. Preston Williams, Vic Wharton, Jalen Hurd etc....

You guys talking about the 2014 class? We had 32 enrollees and 15 of them left for reasons other than graduation or the draft. Almost 50%. 8 of the players who left were 4 stars, so they weren't the low-ranking recruits either.

Of the 29 enrolless in 2015, 15 left. Over 50%.

All 30 of those players who left did so while Butch was head coach. I've yet to do any research to compare these figures to, but that rate of attrition seems egregious on the surface.

 

[The Artful Dodger]

agree about the job they've done in recruiting HT. they've done an equally good job with several other prospects in this class as well. as for the last part, that's just an opinion, fact is we don't know if anyone could do better/worse. it has been said, even by Pruitt, that it needs to be better, especially at closing.


i don't think i've done that in any of my posts on the subject. and again, we don't know "nobody else could've done better".

i think everyone that's associated with UT is well aware of just how bad it's been. as for the recruit's itself comments, i agree. i generally interpret that, though, to mean that no prospect walks away from TN thinking "well, they don't have this, they dont' have that...". to me, "recruits itself" is in regards to the tangibles...faciliites, resources, support, tradition etc....we'll compare favorably with just about anyone on that stuff. so i don't get to bent out of shape about it.

as for the speed of the rebuild, i think most level headed folks realized that given the issues on the line of scrimmage, 3 years was probably the most widely accepted time frame. and that would just get you (hopefully) even with some of the upper tier programs. not necessarily better.

as i've said, i just don't see why this has to be an ultimatum type argument. is this class good? yep, very good. especially at DB and OL.

is it gooe enough to simply keep pace with the upper teams in the league? no, it's not. is it good enough to get even with programs like USCe, KY, Vandy, MO? yeah, probably.

but that's not the bar. and there's nothing wrong with saying that. just like there's nothing wrong with saying this is going to be a really good class, no matter who else we get. they're both true.

Agree, and I do see where you are coming from. I think a lot of it is what Tide Warrior said about going head-to-head for recruits with committable offers to the current top teams, along with a lot of other factors. None of which is bigger than the fact this staff still has only had since last December to even have a chance to talk to these recruits on behalf of Tennessee. Sure Pruitt recruited a lot of the same players at Bama and Georgia that he is now but its going to take more results on the field and in the NFL Draft to show those same high-profile recruits that Pruitt and staff were the reason for their success and not the program that they coached for.

 

[PoweredByTheT]

You guys talking about the 2014 class? We had 32 enrollees and 15 of them left for reasons other than graduation or the draft. Almost 50%. 8 of the players who left were 4 stars, so they weren't the low-ranking recruits either.

Of the 29 enrolless in 2015, 15 left. Over 50%.

All 30 of those players who left did so while Butch was head coach. I've yet to do any research to compare these figures to, but that rate of attrition seems egregious on the surface.

46.875% in 2014.... over exaggerater

 

[JacketVol]

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

Not even his parents whose dad controls everything his last name could be Ball.

 

[OGbabyaviVol]

Hey @InVOLuntary, looks like your services might be needed for this recruit.

 

[butchna]

Warrior was a legacy ... and Khalil McKenzie was absolutely the crown jewel of his class.

No he wasn’t.