Tennessee comes in with HUGE recruiting haul

After years of being terrible, Tennessee head coach Butch Jones has come in with just what the doctors in Knoxville ordered: A monster haul.

By the end of National Signing Day, 32 players had signed up to be Volunteers (yeah, you read that right), much to even the biggest UT bloggers, who titled their National Signing Day post: “Where did all these bricks come from?”

The answer is that Tennessee kicked butt and got signings in pretty early – including shoring up their defense with some excellent recruits.

The biggest signings of these was safety Todd Kelly (59 on ESPN’s Top 300 list), OLB Dillon Bates (105), and DE Dewayne Hendrix (176).

On the offensive side – and something that Jones has always been known for – Tennessee picked up RB Jalen Hurd and WR Josh Malone. Malone could be part of a really great WR duo with current incumbent Marquez North, who had some rave reviews this year.

“The big thing about these recruits is 90% of the players did not take a visit to others schools“, Butch said in a press conference. Could it have something to do with the scenery? 

13 of these players enrolled early, coming in January.

Tennessee has been ranked No.7 by 247 and No.5 by Rivals in the composite rankings.