First-year Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt, a former longtime defensive coordinator, has had to expand his recruiting range beyond defensive players since taking charge of the Vols.KNOXVILLE - The commitment of a four-star safety on Friday catapulted the University of Tennessee's 2019 football recruiting class to 11th in the 247Sports.com team rankings and eighth in the Rivals.com rankings.
Jaylen McCollough, who is from the Atlanta suburb of Powder Springs, announced his commitment to the Volunteers in a ceremony at Hillgrove High School. He chose them over Alabama and South Carolina and indicated he plans to enroll at Tennessee in January after completing his senior season with the Hawks.
McCollough is Tennessee's 19th commitment for 2019 and the fifth projected to play defensive back in college. The emphasis on recruiting for the secondary comes as the Vols remain unsettled at cornerback heading into the 2018 season. Tennessee is also set to lose senior safeties Micah Abernathy and Todd Kelly Jr. after this season, and junior safety Nigel Warrior could play his way into NFL draft consideration with a strong year.
Verbal commitments are nonbinding, and prospects' first chance to sign a binding letter of intent will come in December.
Ranked the 10th-best safety in the country for the 2019 class by 247Sports, McCollough is the eighth player in the Vols' recruiting class rated with four or five stars. He is also the ninth player in the class from Georgia.
With just a few spots remaining in the class, the Vols are likely to focus on securing commitments for their offense because just seven of their current commitments are projected to play on that side of the ball in college. Three are offensive linemen, two are tight ends, one is a quarterback and one is a wide receiver. Three-star athlete Aaron Beasley plays running back for Georgia's Heard County High School but is projected to play safety in college.
Pruitt's success recruiting defensive players comes after he spent the past five seasons coordinating some of the nation's top defenses at Florida State, Georgia and Alabama. Having to expand his recruiting repertoire has been one of the biggest adjustments to becoming a head coach, Pruitt acknowledged this past Sunday.
"Probably the biggest thing is recruiting all sides of the ball," he said. "You know, being involved in recruiting everybody on the defensive side and maybe who's in your area (before). But now, actually deciding, 'Hey, we want this guy as an offensive tackle or a tight end.' That's probably one of the big things."
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.