Heupel recruiting

#51
#51
The SEC in football is shark infested waters. Do some fan bases care about baseball? Sure! Do all the heavy hitters care about football? Absolutely. It's not as simple as thinking we can go spend spend spend and get our guys. Heck all of those teams have far better high school in state recruiting grounds than us in Louisiana, Georgia, Forida and Alabama.
 
#52
#52
Volsloco said:
Ok, we have Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and North Carolina. I will take that talent.
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But you have Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Clemson, LSU, Ole Miss, Miami and FSU that you are competing against. Not to mention other programs from outside the SEC footprint.
 
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#53
#53
Volsloco said:
Ok, we have Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and North Carolina. I will take that talent. What about tradition and championships?
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So we need to outrecruit uga in Georgia, UF/FSU/ Miami in Florida, Bama and auburn in Alabama, etc?
 
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#56
#56
Vol8188 said:
Interesting. Both of those show the worse class had a better blue chip ratio. And then 2025 on both sites was even better than 2023 or 2024, correct?
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ON3 is what most people go by. We’ve improved in ranking most years I believe. Even more interesting is how much closer the rankings are getting in point value. Top ten is generally separated by one or two recruits. Parity is closer in the top teams than ever before. Attrition, development, portal will be what separates the top teams.

I don’t agree with the OP argument or premise but if I wanted to play devils advocate I feel like we haven’t recruited the Oline position as well as we should in the past up till this year. Db recruiting has been meh as well imo. Gibson and boo are of course very good but our depth isn’t much jmo.

Don’t care about rank as long as blue chip ratio and score is close to the higher ranked teams. Have to do a better job at Oline recruiting imo; sanders was a great win.
 
#57
#57
Georgia has more talent then Cali
utvolpj said:
So we need to outrecruit uga in Georgia, UF/FSU/ Miami in Florida, Bama and auburn in Alabama, etc?
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Georgia has more talent than California, with only one good school, plenty enough elite athletes for us, and that's not counting Florida, Alabama, North Carolina, and Mississippi. I would take that all day over having one state. Dan lanning only got 5 guys from Cali this class.
 
#58
#58
Volsloco said:
Georgia has more talent then Cali

Georgia has more talent than California, with only one good school, plenty enough elite athletes for us, and that's not counting Florida, Alabama, North Carolina, and Mississippi. I would take that all day over having one state. Dan lanning only got 5 guys from Cali this class.
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💯
 
#59
#59
DaddyChad said:
ON3 is what most people go by. We’ve improved in ranking most years I believe. Even more interesting is how much closer the rankings are getting in point value. Top ten is generally separated by one or two recruits. Parity is closer in the top teams than ever before. Attrition, development, portal will be what separates the top teams.

I don’t agree with the OP argument or premise but if I wanted to play devils advocate I feel like we haven’t recruited the Oline position as well as we should in the past up till this year. Db recruiting has been meh as well imo. Gibson and boo are of course very good but our depth isn’t much jmo.

Don’t care about rank as long as blue chip ratio and score is close to the higher ranked teams. Have to do a better job at Oline recruiting imo; sanders was a great win.
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You are right sanders was a great win but we have not have a high school offensive lineman pan out or WR.
 
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#60
#60
Volsloco said:
Ok, we have Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and North Carolina. I will take that talent. What about tradition and championships?
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Dude I would love to agree with you. We haven’t been relevant since most these kids have been alive though. Tennessee has won some championships in the past, Oregon and washington have competed for or won conference championships and national titles recently. This is our first year even having a chance at competing for a title and we got bounced hard in the first round.

I mean sure the program if you’re asking historians is more prestigious but most of these 18-22 year old kids aren’t historians.
 
#61
#61
Volsloco said:
I will probably get bashed for being negative, but I am telling the truth. Heupel should be recruiting top 3 in both high school and the portal. There is no excuse; Vitello has recruited top 5 every year to a baseball program that has basically never been good. Caldwell has the number 1 ranked class with 4 5 stars. There is simply no excuse, especially since Heupel has been winning.
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And look at how many havent worked out and left.
 
#62
#62
Volsloco said:
You are right sanders was a great win but we have not have a high school offensive lineman pan out or WR.
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WR I absolutely agree on.

Oline is a little more complicated. First couple of years this program was a dumpster fire under investigation by ncaa. Your talent pool there was a little more restricted due to that. It’s also a developmental position where strength and conditioning a couple years really help. We’re just now starting to be able to land those big olinemen. So yeah I think we’ve underperformed there but there were a fair bit of obstacles as well.
 
#65
#65
DaddyChad said:
WR I absolutely agree on.

Oline is a little more complicated. First couple of years this program was a dumpster fire under investigation by ncaa. Your talent pool there was a little more restricted due to that. It’s also a developmental position where strength and conditioning a couple years really help. We’re just now starting to be able to land those big olinemen. So yeah I think we’ve underperformed there but there were a fair bit of obstacles as well.
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I agree, but they have got to get better there.
 
#67
#67
Volsloco said:
I will probably get bashed for being negative, but I am telling the truth. Heupel should be recruiting top 3 in both high school and the portal. There is no excuse; Vitello has recruited top 5 every year to a baseball program that has basically never been good. Caldwell has the number 1 ranked class with 4 5 stars. There is simply no excuse, especially since Heupel has been winning.
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Seriously you should go find another team if that is your expectation. I love Tennessee but I don’t expect to see elite level football because it doesn’t exist for 95% of the programs!

Regular top 3-5 recruiting classes are not possible at Tennessee. In-state talent has always been low-mid and proximity for most of the state is as close to; if not closer to rival schools as it is to Knoxville. We do not have the geographical or monetary advantages of Georgia and Ohio State. It’s just a fact.

Spyre has done a solid job. They were the most organized collective out of the gate with NIL but that advantage has long gone. The competition has caught up and surpassed us. That is a fact.

At this point, Heupel needs to surround himself with smart coaches and he has to do a better job of identifying and developing talent.

In my opinion, you let the guys go that don’t want to be here. If they want to jump ship every time the portal opens, we don’t want them here. Next man up.
 
#69
#69
I can field a couple of these though. Florida threw a ton of money around that they had already put together to buy out Billy. Auburn has been on the wrong page for so long they had a lot of donors ready to throw money at anything walking when they got the right coach; it’s not a sustainable model though.

Spyre is trying to be competitive every year. Teams like Ohio state had most every position filled with elite talent they were able to target a couple of positions in portal and really spend on those bc they felt like they could get over the top. Idk that we’re quite there and idk that we can spend on several positions like they did. We don’t mind spending to get a player we think can solidify the LT position like Heard but you can’t spend and land multiple guys like Ohio State getting Downs, Judkins, and the center from Bama whose name escapes me.
 
#71
#71
Volsloco said:
I will probably get bashed for being negative, but I am telling the truth. Heupel should be recruiting top 3 in both high school and the portal. There is no excuse; Vitello has recruited top 5 every year to a baseball program that has basically never been good. Caldwell has the number 1 ranked class with 4 5 stars. There is simply no excuse, especially since Heupel has been winning.
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HS recruiting means almost nothing anymore. Teams are lucky to have 5 guys out of a single class still on the roster in 3 years.
 
#72
#72
Volsloco said:
I will probably get bashed for being negative, but I am telling the truth. Heupel should be recruiting top 3 in both high school and the portal. There is no excuse; Vitello has recruited top 5 every year to a baseball program that has basically never been good. Caldwell has the number 1 ranked class with 4 5 stars. There is simply no excuse, especially since Heupel has been winning.
Click to expand...

With your absolute position it is obvious you should be willing to share your NIL donations to show he cannot hide behind his relative position in the FOOTBALL warchest. 85 in the revenue generating sport vs 15 or 20+ schollies is what it is. Different.
 
#73
#73
Huep can't recruit for crap..
The University of Tennessee will always recruit well regardless of coach. Top 20 always pretty much

Josh has been terrible on the front. Best recruit so far is SANDERS JR and he hasn't played a snap
 
#74
#74
Top 3 isn't realistic with the combination of money and base of Texas/UGA. Top 3 would mean you have to beat out everyone else, which simply isn't feasible for UT.

However, I do think UT should be recruiting better. If UT wants to be a big boy program, Barn/Clemson/Miami/Oklahoma can't consistently beat you in recruiting each year, which they have. Bama's '25 recruiting is surprising. Oregon is an outlier.
 
#75
#75
We’re never going to recruit top 3 consisgently, that’s why evaluations and projections are crucial at a school like Tennessee and that’s where Heupel’s organization is behind.

We’re not growing our own except on the Defensive side of the ball and Sampson.
 
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