KNOXVILLE – With its recruiting class mostly complete and the crown jewel of the group already on campus, there’s a palpable lack of buzz around the University of Tennessee leading into college football’s national signing day Wednesday.
That’s certainly not been the case in previous Februarys under coach Butch Jones.
The Volunteers put the final finishing touches on large top-five classes in 2014 and 2015, and the late addition of talented athlete Tyler Byrd and uncertainty around other big-time prizes such as Nigel Warrior and Jonathan Kongbo had Tennessee fans on edge going into signing day last year.
This time, though, Tennessee’s class is essentially full already and the biggest splash the Vols made, assuming they don’t pluck premier defensive end prospect LaBryan Ray out of Alabama, was in December when offensive lineman Trey Smith committed to them. He enrolled a month later.
“I think it’s a fair assessment,” ESPN recruiting analyst Derek Tyson said earlier this month. “They’ve put together a good class. I think we have them ranked 10th in the country right now in the recruiting rankings, so it’s not a bad class, and obviously getting Trey Smith, the top player in the country, away from Alabama and Ohio State and Notre Dame, that was a big get for Butch.