2015 Recruiting Class

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Pretty good read on recruiting:

College Football Recruiting

By Doug Matthews

Assistant Coaches sell various players who they recruit to the head coach. The more players that they can sell to the head coach, the better they look in the eyes of recruiting services and coaches. They often have dissenting opinions, which can be heated discussion, over the players who they should offer a scholarship to.

Bob Welton is the Director of Player Personnel. He is a former NFL scout. At UT. He is the closest staff member to Butch Jones and all recruiting information flows through him.. Welton and Butch Jones work hand in hand on recruiting and Welton is who Butch Jones turns to for anything recruiting-wise.

All scholarship offers are extended by the head coach-Butch Jones. Commitments can only be accepted by the head coach only-Butch Jones. This protects the assistant coaches who recruit the prospects. Any changes in recruiting direction by a school are made by the head coach and absolves the assistant coach of responsibility.

UT has a large room in the coaching offices, called a “War Room” On the walls of the “War Room” is an area for recruiting, where all prospects that they are recruiting are listed and ranked in order of preference. Each player has a plate with his information on it. That information includes, grade point average, size, speed, character comments, etc… Each recruit is ranked by and listed by position.

UT has what they call a “underclassmen depth chart”. This depth chart does not include upperclassmen, but does include all of the incoming freshmen, rising freshmen and sophomores in the program. The staff uses this big board as a visual aid to get a picture of where their numbers are short. They also have information on the underclassmen in regards to their standing in the program. This allows the staff to see where any future departures could affect the depth at each position and gives the staff a better of idea of where they have or will have needs to recruit to fill. With this aid, Butch Jones and Bob Welton know how many players that they can sign in each class.

UT will sign 24 players in this class. Swafford is the 25th player in this class when it is completed in February. Any extra signees would cause the staff to squeeze an additional player or recruit out of the program. Matthews says that UT will not accept any recruits with questionable character in this class and that the team is not in the position of accepting just any commitment.

Doug Matthews said that we lose on average 3 commitments every year and that this year is likely no different. He said you can usually add another to the list, so we will likely lose 3-4 current commitments from the list of 18 current commitments(6-28-14). Matthews said that the staff knows of the 3 likely prospects who will not be part of the 2015 signing class.

Tennessee’s special team commitments will not be cut loose or gray shirted. They will be part of the 2015 signing class. Doug Pointed out that these special team prospects are elite at their positions and will be an important part of the program for the next 3-4 seasons. That is important to the coaches and the program.

The bottom line is that we have 18 commitments but 3 of those commitments will look elsewhere, so we effectively have 15 commitments with a total of 24 scholarships to give out. This, we have 9 spots open.

Tennessee will hold 5 of those scholarships for specific players. They will hold scholarships for Kyle Phillips, Kahlil McKenzie, Van Jefferson, Drew Richmond, and Rico McGraw. Matthews believes that McKenzie, Phillips, and Jefferson will be Vols, but said we are in a good position to land Richmond and McGraw.

In-state recruiting is important to the Vols because the staff is able to compile a lot more information on in-state players than they are on out of state players. This helps the staff avoid making mistake in taking players with character or playing concerns. Ee took 7 players from Tennessee a year ago and we could take 1-11 in-state players in this 2015 class. Tennessee is putting out 10-12 SEC caliber players every year now and UT is in a position to turn away some players, while taking the best of that bunch.

Doug Matthews also discussed the numbers in regards to our QB and WR positions. Doug said that in the end, UT will only sign 2 WRs in this class. He said that Williams and Jefferson are the likely WRs in this class. UT is in a position to only accept the elite Wrs in the country and does not have to settle for anything less than that. UT will only sign 2 QBs in this class, Jauan Jennings and Quinten Dormady.

According to Matthews, UT will not accept the commitment of Torrance Gibson should he commit. He said that Gibson has some character concerns and that UT has told Jauan Jennings that he will be the only dual threat QB that UT signs in this class and that UT has told both Jennings and Dormady that they will be the only 2 QBs signed in this 2015 recruiting class. Jennings has been told that he will be given at least one full season to learn and prove himself at QB. After then, should he want to move to another position, he could do so.

So, UT has 9 spots left and is holding the 5 scholarships for Philips, McKenzie, Jefferson, McGraw, and Richmond. That leaves 4 spots open. Matthews said that 2 incoming freshmen from our 2014 singing class are being moved to the offensive line and one sophomore defensive lineman is being moved to the offensive line. That eliminates the need to recruit so many additional offensive linemen. The 4 remaining spots are likely to be 2 more linebackers and 2 more cornerbacks. Matthews believes that the linebackers will be current Auburn commitment Montaviuus Atkinson and Quarte Sapp. Matthews says that the likely cornerbacks are Cameron Ordway and Justin Martin. Matthews stated that the 2015 recruiting class will likely be finished by the end of the summer.

 

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Good read

 

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The guys we're looking to fill the class with:

4-star DT Kahlil McKenzie
4-star WR Van Jefferson
4-star DE Kyle Phillips
4-star DB RicoMcGraw
4-star DB Cameron Ordway
4-star OL Drew Richmond
4-star LB Quarte Sapp
3-star LB Montavious Atkinson
3-star DB Justin Martin

 

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Rasool Clemons

Named Tennessee his leader. Believe he picked up several crystal ball predictions to Tennessee on 247.

Just another one to keep an eye on.

 

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Got a commitment today from a 3-star Offensive lineman from Virginia.

Chance Hall

 

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Got a commitment today from a 3-star Offensive lineman from Virginia.

Chance Hall

 

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4-star WR Van Jefferson says Tennessee, Georgia and Ohio St. are his top 3.

 

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Preston Williams

“It’s still solid —100 percent,” he said, adding that he’s “probably not” going to visit any schools other than Tennessee in the coming months.

He said he has developed a strong relationship with Vols wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni since committing to Tennessee almost 10 months ago, and he’s looking forward to playing for Azzanni.

“He’s got a relationship with all the receivers,” Williams said. “He’s going to coach you and try to make you better. As I watch him and listen to him and hear from all the other players, they like him a lot, so then he just grew on me. He’s like a father figure to me.”

Williams said he likes that Azzanni coaches his receivers “real hard.”

“You don’t want to be coached soft,” Williams said. “If you don’t want nobody to tell you the truth, they ain’t going to make you better. You’ve always got to hear the truth and be coached hard, because you’ve got to play hard or go home.”

He said he’s looking forward to joining the talented wide receivers on Tennessee’s roster, which already includes sophomore Marquez North, junior-college transfer Von Pearson, redshirt sophomore*Jason Croom and freshmanJosh Malone, a former top-50 prospect who joined the Vols in January.

“It’s always been ‘Receiver U.’ It never left. I’m going to ‘Receiver U,’” Williams said.

“I mean, we’re young. We’re bringing a new type of feeling to the game — just a brand-new feel and all that. We’ve got receivers, and we’re big and fast and strong. It’s going to be nasty.”

Williams, who’s planning to enroll at Tennessee in January, said it also helps that he and most of the Vols’ current receivers have plenty of size.

“Everybody’s big,” he said. “You can throw jump balls to anybody now. Short DBs have got problems. You better have at least 6-foot DBs. I don’t even know if that can help.”

 

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Josh Sweat

Tennessee received a visit a week before.

“They just have really nice facilities,” Sweat said. “The coaches make me feel real comfortable there. I thought it was right to give them a visit and I did enjoy myself.”


Florida State may get the next visit in July.

“I might, but I haven’t set that up yet,” Sweat said. “The same thing with the other places. The coaches are nice. I feel they care about their players. Anywhere like that sticks out.”

The nation’s No. 2 overall player by 247Sports.com Composite Rankings had only been to Virginia Tech prior to June. Its the place he was big on going into the summer.

“I still am,” Sweat said. “I’m most familiar with them. Obviously I’ve been there a couple of times already. They are still high on my list.”

Is the plan to take five official visits this fall before he decides?

“I should,” Sweat said. “I don't have any set up yet. I still have to get stuff straight (to enroll early) but I definitely have the grades (to). I definitely want to.”


Who recruits the top prospect out of the state of Virginia the hardest?

“All of those teams that I mentioned or Virginia Tech,” Sweat said.

Right now, the 6-foot-5, 240-pounder is big on Georgia, Virginia Tech, Tennessee, Ohio State and Florida State.

“So far yes,” Sweat said. “No favorites or leaders yet.”

 

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Darian Roseboro

Made a list of his top 6 (no order):
Tennessee
Michigan
Alabama
UNC
NC State
Clemson

 

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@rivalsmike: Biggest get of the week is going to be Kahlil McKenzie to the #vols this week I would have to think.

 

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Kahlil McKenzie will be announcing tonight at 7CT on ESPNU

 

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Kahlil McKenzie will be announcing tonight at 7CT on ESPNU

I'm pretty sure it's down to us and Arizona, and I'd say there's a 90% chance he commits to us. VolNations meltdown will be EPIC if he chooses Arizona.

 

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"Five-star defensive tackle prospect Kahlil McKenzie (Concord, Calif./Clayton Valley) has been getting rave reviews from the analysts and experts at The Opening, and Wednesday 247Sports Director of Scouting Barton Simmons said McKenzie made the "signature play" of the day for the defensive line group.
Simmons described it this way: "McKenzie, lining up on top of Matthew Burrell, fired off the ball at the snap and his initial punch put Burrell on his back. There wasn’t much more to it than that. Burrell measured in at 6-4, 291 pounds but he might as well have weighed 160 the way McKenzie handled him on that rep." According to the 247Sports Composite, McKenzie (6-4, 341) is the No. 35 overall prospect in the country and Burrell checks in at No. 60. McKenzie is scheduled to make his college choice Thursday between Tennessee and Arizona."

 

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@ryancav7: The top HS player in Ohio this year - Jerome Baker of Benedictine - announces his college on Friday. Most say #Buckeyes, I'm calling #Gators

 

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"TNswag98: “@HamiltonESPN: #ESPN300 WR Van Jefferson with 1 hell of a leaping TD catch on a dart from #ESPN300 No. 89 Sam Darnold. #TheOpening”

 

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McKenzie committed

Kahlil McKenzie

 

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McKenzie committed

Kahlil McKenzie

I'm hearing he's not going to qualify academically and will have to spend a year in JUCO.






























































J/K

 

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I'm hearing he's not going to qualify academically and will have to spend a year in JUCO.


J/K

 

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@ryancav7: The top HS player in Ohio this year - Jerome Baker of Benedictine - announces his college on Friday. Most say #Buckeyes, I'm calling #Gators

Committed to Florida.

http://sports.yahoo.com/queencityhigh/football/recruiting/player-Jerome-Baker-147537