"It was just the coaching staff and the atmosphere," McCollough said. "Bringing coach (Jeremy) Pruitt and coach (Charles) Kelly over really brought me to Tennessee. Being up there around the whole staff was like a second home. They love football and that's something I want to be around. I know for a fact I love football It just feels like family."
The relationship with first-year Vol safeties coach Charles Kelly helped deliver the final blow to South Carolina, Florida State and others, as McCollough found great peace in his relationship with the veteran assistant.
"He's just an honest dude," McCollough said. "He's been recruiting me since my freshman year and he has never steered me wrong. He has given me some of the best advice outside of football. That shows me he cares about me as a man and not just another player."
McCollough's ties to Kelly actually go back even further than when the current Vols' assistant began recruiting him early in his high school career.
"He actually recruited my dad and coached him when he was in college at Jacksonville State," McCollough said. "That didn't play a factor in anything, but he just loves the game and I love his honesty. I just know I can trust him. He tells me about when he used to chew my dad out when he was coaching him and shows me old pictures of the two of them."
BOOM
