KNOXVILLE - College football's offseason is largely a myth, particularly when it comes to recruiting.
That's certainly been the case so far this month for Tennessee's coaching staff.
The summer camp circuit, bolstered by the NCAA's approval of off-campus satellite camps, has kept coach Butch Jones and his assistants busy this week as the Volunteers work toward building another strong recruiting class.
The camps began last weekend when Tennessee hosted a specialist camp for kickers, punters and long snappers, followed by the program's annual arsenal quarterback camp. On Sunday the staff was in Nashville conducting its first satellite camp at Tennessee State.
The mid-state region is full of talented prospects for 2017, including athlete JaCoby Stevens (Oakland); safeties Maleik Gray (LaVergne) and Theo Jackson (Nashville Overton); wide receiver Princeton Fant (LaVergne); running back Ty Chandler (Montgomery Bell Academy); offensive tackle Obinna Eze (Davidson Academy); and cornerback Gentry Bonds (Riverdale). Eze, Gray, Jackson and wide receiver Tee Higgins - a five-star former Tennessee commitment from the Knoxville area - were at the satellite camp at Tennessee State, and the Vols also got early looks at prospects from the 2018 and 2019 classes.
This past Sunday, kicker Brent Cimaglia, from Page High School in Franklin, became Tennessee's ninth public commitment for 2017. The No. 3 kicker in the country, according to 247Sports.com, he flipped his pledge from Southern Mississippi after visiting Knoxville.
One of Tennessee's mid-state targets, David Lipscomb defensive tackle Rutger Reitmaier, committed to Oregon on Wednesday. Last year the Ducks reached into Memphis and snagged White Station wide receiver Dillon Mitchell, the state's top-ranked player in his class.
After two more camps in Knoxville on Monday and Tuesday, Jones and the Vols held a camp for offensive and defensive linemen Wednesday at the University School of Jackson, which top target Trey Smith attends. Smith, one of the nation's top offensive tackle prospects, is considering the Vols, Alabama and Clemson among many others.
"I've been through these enough to not come into this nervous, but it definitely was kind of weird having it here on the field where I've been playing for a while now," Smith told the Jackson Sun. "But talking with (Butch Jones) and some of the assistant coaches was great as usual. I've known them since I was 14, and I feel like I know them well."
The Vols welcomed the help of some of notable former linemen, including current Miami Dolphins star Ja'Wuan James, longtime Green Bay Packers center Scott Wells and three former Vols from western Tennessee who went on to play in the NFL - Chad Clifton, Trey Teague and Al Wilson.
Hardin County tight end/defensive end LaTrell Bumphus attended the camps in Nashville and Jackson. Defensive end Greg Emerson, one of Tennessee's 2018 targets out of Jackson's North Side High School, was at the Jackson camp.
After hosting more visitors Friday and today, the Vols will take part in a third satellite camp Monday at Georgia State University in Atlanta.
Tennessee also sent staffers to camps in Los Angeles and another one in the Nashville area and had multiple assistants in attendance Thursday at the Georgia Minority Coaches Association's Atlanta-area camp, which hosted coaches from dozens of programs.
Coaches from Tennessee and Vanderbilt will join Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh - a notable proponent of satellite camps - and a handful of other Football Bowl Subdivision coaches for a camp at Murfreesboro's Oakland High School on Tuesday.
Jones indicated earlier this offseason that the Vols would limit their satellite camp involvement outside of Tennessee's borders and stressed a desire to remain in Knoxville to tend to the current team as much as possible this summer.
The Vols will host their annual "Orange Carpet Day," typically one of the summer's most important sets of recruiting visits, next weekend.
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.