I am at peace with the revised college football recruiting calendar. For me selfishly I guess, it is all about Tennessee athletics content and the ability to shorten the bridge from one football season to another. For the longest time Tennessee athletics have been sort of ho-hum and that bridge has seemed like the Bridge to Nowhere. First Rick Barnes came along and made the basketball team interesting again. Then he was outdone by Tony Vitello and the BaseVols who season in and out are competing for championships. Baseball season ends in mid-June or later if we are really lucky.
Getting Acclimated To The New Normal: 
On the new football recruiting calendar, June is the new January. It's arguably the most active month of the cycle. More and more prospects take official visits in June and then announce their college decisions in July or just before the start of their senior season. This is the new recruiting normal. With this new recruiting calendar that spans June until late July, I now have some kind of Tennessee athletics related content to pay attention to year-round. And this pleases me.
June Is Moving Month: Tennessee expects to get a lot of its recruiting work done in June this recruiting cycle.
The NCAA allows up to 56 official visitors each recruiting cycle. Official visit counting is inexact to be sure, but by my count, Tennessee will be hosting between 30 and 35 official visitors in June. Tennessee wants to avoid the situation it found itself in last recruiting cycle. After productive months of June and July, Tennessee sputtered and lost all of its recruiting momentum. Tennessee lost out on prospect after prospect going 110 days between football commitments. What was more impactful though is Tennessee seemed to be left without a viable back up plan at many positions.
This cycle seems different in that respect. Tennessee has cast a wider recruiting net in hopes of avoiding a repeat of last year’s 110-day commitment drought.
Tennessee is involved with more linemen and wide receivers and has already made the decision to host more prospects at these positions than last cycle.
Tennessee sits on 9 commitments as of today. 5 committed prospects are projected to play offense. 3 of the commitments are from within the state of Tennessee.
Tennessee is off to a pretty good start. Let’s take a position-by-position look.
Tennessee Offensive Recruiting By Position To This Point: Quarterback: Tennessee is done at quarterback this cycle. Brentwood, Tennessee’s George McIntyre committed in January. He was their #1 target for this cycle. Job well done.
Tight End: Tennessee is done at tight end this recruiting cycle. Jack Van Dorselaer, a 4-star tight end from Southlake Carroll, Texas, committed to Tennessee in January. By signing day, fans will forget how important getting a commitment from a consensus 4-star, 6’5” 235 lb. tight end is. He is perfect for the Tennessee offense. Van Dorselaer is a multi-sport athlete, he runs well, and he is a willing blocker (very important for a Tennessee tight end to have that mindset).
Tennessee is hosting tight end DaSaahn Brame, a highly sought after 4-star prospect from Derby, Kansas, on an official visit. While I do think Brame is intrigued by Tennessee’s use of the tight end in so many different ways,
it is hard to imagine that Brame does not commit to Oregon by the end of June.
Running Back: De’Rail Sims replaced Jerry Mack as Tennessee’s running back coach prior to spring practice. Jerry Mack had a good eye for talent and was an excellent developer of talent. Naturally, during the transition from Mack to Sims, running back recruiting took a slight step backwards. The good news is that running back Justin Baker from Buford High School, Georgia, who committed to Jerry Mack in October, remains committed to Tennessee. Pay no attention to Baker’s current star rating. He is massively under-ranked. He will be a challenge for Tennessee to hold on to until signing day.
Tennessee will sign another running back in the 2025 class. The name that seems to stand out right now is Baylor School (Chattanooga) running back Shekai Mills-Knight.
Mills-Knight, who takes an official visit to Tennessee in June, is built similarly to Cam Seldon. Tennessee has seemed to prioritize Mills-Knight’s recruitment after seeing him in person during the evaluation period.
Tennessee is recruiting two Cleveland, Ohio, area running backs in Marquise Davis and Bo Jackson. Davis is a Kentucky commitment but has scheduled an official visit to Tennessee in June. Another running back on the board is Todd Robinson from Valdosta, Georgia. Tennessee trails Georgia for Robinson.
Wide Receiver: Tennessee is off to a nice start here. Josh Heupel and wide receivers coach Kelsey Pope have already secured commitments from two of its top wide receiver targets:
Joakim Dodson (Collierville) and Radarious Jackson (Memphis). Both prospects could choose to play college football at most any school in the south or any part of the country for that matter. They choose to play for their home state school. Both are excellent prospects now and their best football is ahead of them.
I still think Tennessee signs at least two more wide receivers. Kelsey Pope has put together a recruiting board that is deep, talented, and coveted by schools in the major football conferences who run up tempo offenses. Cam Sparks from the Baylor School in Chattanooga is on that recruiting board. I once believed Sparks would be committed to Tennessee by Memorial Day. However, now I’m not even certain Sparks is part of Tennessee’s signing class. Just goes to show you how fickle recruiting can be.
Tennessee is locked in a battle with Georgia for two of the state of Georgia’s top wide receivers. Westlake’s Travis Smith and Savannah’s Thomas Blackshear. Tennessee probably leads for Smith and trails George for Blackshear. We’ll know about Blackshear soon. He is scheduled to announce his decision on Sunday, the 12th .
Additionally a pair of five-star wide receivers have scheduled official visits in June to Tennessee.
Caleb Cunningham from Mississippi and Jaime Ffrench from Florida. Cunningham is the more realistic target for Tennessee. Also, Bishop Gorman Las Vegas’ Derek Meadows and Mater Dei Santa Ana, California’s Marcus Harris have confirmed official visits. Both are elite wide receiver talents (top 100 -150 prospects nationally). Tennessee is a dark horse for both. With that said, I wouldn’t be surprised to see one of the two as part of Tennessee’s class.
Tennessee is also continuing to evaluate wide receiver / athlete Kolbe Harmon from Brentwood Academy. Harmon is built along the lines of Squirrel White. He has elite level speed and could contribute on either side of the ball and special teams. Just one to keep an eye on.
Offensive Line: As of May, Tennessee doesn’t have a single offensive lineman committed. With the graduation losses after the 2024 season, Tennessee has a lot of work to do at this position. Tennessee internally feels really good about the work the recruiting and coaching staff have done this cycle. They should. You look at the offensive linemen that have scheduled official visits, or are planning to, and it’s a really nice group.
This sounds strikingly similar to the messaging from the last recruiting cycle. Top rated offensive line prospects take Tennessee’s calls, visit the campus, and eat tons of chicken fingers while visiting. When it comes to decision time Tennessee hasn’t been able to consistently close the deal on elite level prospects. Maybe more importantly is what happens when offensive linemen do sign with Tennessee. They can’t seem to develop them into SEC offensive linemen.
Look at the 2024 projected offensive line starters. Both tackles are transfers; one guard and the center were recruited to Tennessee by Jeremy Pruitt; and it’s anyone’s guess who plays the other guard position, but it will be either a transfer, a walk on, or another player signed by Jeremy Pruitt. And the #1 lineman off the bench is a former walk on.
Tennessee did bounce back from some recruiting misses and sign a nice group of offensive lineman last recruiting cycle, but the issue of player development remains.
Most Tennessee fans know that, and you can bet that Tennessee’s rivals know this as well. You can be assured the lack of player development is being used against Tennessee in recruiting. I’m all for Tennessee signing a great offensive line class, but it’s hard to overlook these concerns.
I could see Tennessee signing up to 5 offensive lineman. Tennessee needs interior lineman and tackles.
Here's The Board: Antoni Ogumoro, interior lineman. Elgin, Oklahoma. He just wrapped up an official visit to Tennessee. By all accounts he had a great visit. Can Tennessee close here?
Jaelyne Matthews. Offensive tackle, Toms River, New Jersey. Tennessee has been leading for Matthews since February. He is a true offensive tackle. He is visiting Tennessee in June. He would be a nice pick up. Again, let’s see if Tennessee can close.
David Sanders. Offensive tackle. Let’s give some credit where credit is due. Tennessee is shooting its shot for the #1 rated offensive tackle in the country. Tennessee is neck and neck with Ohio State and Clemson for Sanders. He is visiting all three schools in June and his decision will come thereafter. Ohio State is Tennessee’s biggest competition. I do think in the case of Sanders distance from his hometown, Charlotte, North Carolina, will play a factor in his decision.
Josh Petty. Offensive tackle. Petty plans to visit Tennessee. Right now, Florida State , Clemson, and Auburn are ahead of Tennessee.
Juan Gaston. Offensive tackle. Gaston’s interest in Tennessee once seemed high. However, I’m not sure Tennessee even receives an official visit. Something has changed here. Maybe Tennessee would be best served to use this visit more wisely.
Jakobe Ward, interior offensive lineman, Savannah, GA. Tennessee has done an excellent job recruiting Ward. Two questions. Where is Ward on the recruiting board and can Tennessee close?
Jatorian Blackmon interior offensive lineman, LaGrange, GA. (see Jakobe Ward)
Dontrell Glover, interior offensive lineman, Fairburn, GA. Tennessee is in this one, but currently trails Florida State and Georgia
Nic Moore, interior offensive lineman. Jefferson County, Tennessee. He is a two-way player in high school who projects as a center in college. He is advanced in terms of strength and conditioning for a high school player. In addition to a standout football player, he is one of the state’s best in the shot put.
There is another group of offensive linemen such as
Andrew Babalola; Darius Afalava; Hardy Watts; Douglas Utu, and Bobby Kanka that have either scheduled or in the process of scheduling official visits to Tennessee. These kids are from different regions of the country. Right now, I don’t see Tennessee as being much of a factor in any of these recruitments. Tennessee seems to be a hat on the table right now. The transfer portal has covered up some of the faults with Tennessee’s problems with recruiting and development of high school offensive line prospects.
Next up next week … the defense.
Until then ...
From the inner sanctum
'X'
@TonyBasilio
