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Vols loading up recruitsPosted Wednesday, June 25, 2008, at 1:36 AM
Several years ago, Tennessee inked both Peyton Manning and Brandon Stewart in the same recruiting class. Then, it was Casey Clausen and A.J. Suggs. Most recently the Vols got both Erik Ainge and Brent Schaeffer. Tennessee football has a tendency to load both chambers of the double-barreled shotgun at once when it comes to recruiting the quarterback position.
The Volunteers are off to an exceptional start to their 2009 recruiting class by getting numerous talents to Knoxville for camps and unofficial visits. That hard work is paying off and commitments are rolling in, including verbals from a pair of signalcallers. Josh Nunes (6-foot-3, 208 pounds) is the California kid that's rated as Rival's No. 10 pro-style QB in the country. Bryce Petty (6-3, 211) is slightly more used to a rolling pocket out of the shotgun formation at his high school in Midlothian, Texas, and is slotted 16 places behind Nunes. When all is said and done, the upcoming class has an opportunity to rival the much-heralded 2007 group with 11 youngsters verbally committed already. New offensive coordinator Dave Clawson is wowing prep stars all across the nation. He's getting plenty of help from head man Phillip Fulmer, the mainstays of the staff and other fresh faces like Stan Drayton. To hear some of what Nunes said about the coaches, check with the KNS. Comments Showing most recent comments first [Show in chronological order instead] |
Danny Parker is sports editor of the Times-Gazette.
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Danny,
All great points! Being a MTSU fan the prior coaching staff did little to sign local players. But Coach Stockstill is doing a great job of getting in-state kids and I am sure he is on a first name basis with a lot of the local and state high school coaches. I think Tennessee fans will be very happy with Rod Wilks, he is better than advertised! Good Luck this season.
What Hawaii plays is not the same brand of football they play east of the Mississippi. After watching several of their games, they are pretty exciting to view but it's somewhere between college ball and arena football. Did you see the Sugar Bowl? If Ainge doesn't throw the pick-six to Zenon in the SEC title game, we might have seen the Vols do the same thing to the Warriors. We'll never know. You are right though, you have to put up a fence around your in-state kids. Your staff has to be on a first name basis with as many high school coaches as possible both in-state and in nearby areas (for UT...North Carolina, South Carolina, southern Virginia, southern Kentucky, etc.) But, that's why coaches/scouts have a certain region they patrol. If you've got a guy that can go to Huntsville, Ala., and get Joey Kent, it's easier to send the same coach back to get Jayson Swain or Arron Sears.
Danny I agree with your post. But I still think there is a lot of hoop-ula in the world of college football (Check Notre Dame's last 5 signing classes)Scout and Rivals can rank all they want. Look at Hawaii who would have thought that 4 years ago they would be a in BCS game. I am guessing that Hawaii never had a Top 10 signing class ever! Yet they mostly have in-state kids and junior college players on the team. I realize Hawaii had a the worst game at the worst time. But it dose say that you can win with in-state kids no matter where you are at.
I wouldn't say that UT has given certain prospects the cold shoulder. If fact, the in-state kids helped carry the '07 class (Donald, Walker, Rogan, Campbell, etc.). You just never know when it comes to private school kids regardless of sport. They just have a different frame of mind (see Jordan, Turner, several other BA prospects). Trust me, the Vol stuff will be full throttle after this year's in-state kids like Marlon Brown and Eric Gordon, who will be on the field against Shelbyville Central during his senior season.
An outsiders view ,if you will, I understand the hype around the rivals.com and scout.com rankings of players across the nation. But I have been and will keep saying that Tennessee has great talent in the state. Why do so many people put so much on the national scope instead of in-state. Just ask Tommy Tuberville who has used the Middle Tennessee pipeline to land such players as King Dunlap (Eagles), John Vaughn (Titans), etc... not to mention Nick Saban who has plucked Brentwood Academy's Chris Jordan. (Scout.com Rank #26) for the Crimson Tide. The last time Tennessee won a national championship it had Jackson's Al Wilson, Winchester's Jeff Hall, Memphis natives Cedrick Wilson and Andre Lott, Harriman's Jermaine Copeland, Murfreesboro's Gerald Griffin, Clarksville's Travis Stephens, Marion County's own Eric Westmoreland, Chad Clifton and Will Ofenhousle from Martin Westview,Tim Sewell from Columbia and Robert Loudermilk from Brentwood.
Most of those guys listed above are in the NFL or were in the NFL. How come year in and year out Tennessee prospects get the cold shoulder when it comes to comparsions to states like Florida and Georgia. Give me a Tennessee kid who has wanted to put on the orange and white and run through the power T on game days since he was a kid.
I agree entirely about defensive tackle being an extreme need in this class. I've got to think that a couple kids somewhere will wise up when they think about Henderson, Haynesworth, Walker, McBride, Harrell, etc. I'm not going to pass any grades on this class until the LOI start coming over on the fax machine in February. But, given how great the new coaches are supposed to be at recruiting, I thought all along that they were concentrating on '09 back in January and February even and my theory is holding up with the extremely large camp numbers. It would have been hard to convince a top-notch QB or WR to come to UT with a brand new offensive coordinator coming. The Vols got Casey Kelly mostly because he knew Clawson long before he came to Rocky Top. Of course that won't matter cause Kelly will soon be in the Red Sox organization playing baseball.
Each one proved out to be the best option for the vols also with A.J. Suggs being the only question mark in my opinion. I know he didn't do much after transferring (to Georgia Tech I think), but was a gifted athlete and Casey never showed up in the big games.
Also...in the three examples of duel quarterbacks in the same signing class...one of the quarterbacks transfered in all three cases!!
It better be a good class to make up for the very weak signing classes they have had over the past few years.
With Georgia and Flordia having great recruting classes every year it's an up hill battle for the Vols.
This is really shaping up to be a great class with the commitments that the Vols have to date. However, there is one glaring hole in the class so far and that is defensive tackle. The Vols need to sign at least two maybe three in this class, but overall it is shaping up to be a great class.
I'm very excited to see the offense that Dave Clawson has inserted. I've tracked his progress at Richmond and have become more excited about this hire after getting some background on him. He is doing a great job of recruiting and it'll only get better if the Vols are able to put a couple of good seasons together behind Jonathan Crompton.
I hope the Vols highly rated recruits can deliver on the playing field. I got so sick of hearing how great Erik Ainge was, but in my opinion, he never did live up to all the hype associated with him...I actually liked Schaeffer better.
I do hope that the Vols have a better season and I know the last one was not terrible, but those losses to Bama & Florida kind of set the tone for me.
William