The Tennessee Volunteers have concluded their third regular season under coach Josh Heupel with an 8-4 record and will learn their postseason destination this Sunday.
Yet the latest adventures for Heupel and his assistants have already begun in what promises to be a busy next few weeks.
“These days have massive, huge implications on what you’re going to be as you move forward as a program,” Heupel said Saturday night following the 48-24 dumping of Vanderbilt inside Neyland Stadium. “There is a lot going on, and it’s all at one time — high school (recruiting), the portal, your players, all of it. You’ve got to manage it all.
“You’ve got to have a great staff that communicates at a really high level and makes the right decisions.”
Tennessee is looking to assemble another solid recruiting class before the early, 72-hour signing window opens on Dec. 20. The Vols began this week with 20 commitments, with the collection pegged 12th nationally on the 247Sports.com rankings.
The Vols have a pair of five-star commitments, Birmingham-area edge rusher Jordan Ross and Atlanta-area receiver Mike Matthews, and they have three commitments from the Chattanooga area — McCallie School defensive end prospect Carson Gentle, and Bradley Central defensive backs Boo Carter and Marcus Goree Jr.
There is also the NCAA transfer portal, which has a window that opens next Monday and runs through Jan. 3. Players at programs that have fired their head coaches are allowed to set their own 30-day window on the date the coach is terminated, which is why it was reported this past weekend that Texas A&M quarterback Max Johnson already had entered.
Tennessee under Heupel has been hugely successful through the transfer portal, acquiring key contributors this season such as quarterback Joe Milton III, receivers Bru McCoy and Dont’e Thornton, tight end McCallan Castles, offensive linemen John Campbell Jr., Andrej Karic and Gerald Mincey, defensive lineman Omarr Norman-Lott, cornerback Gabe Jeudy-Lally and kicker Charles Campbell.
The Vols had 36 seniors go through festivities before kickoff against the Commodores, but nearly half of those could return and may need to return.
According to a seven-round mock draft released this past weekend by the Pro Football Network, only two Vols are projected to get picked, with senior edge rusher Tyler Baron and junior running back Jaylen Wright predicted for the back half of the fifth round.
Let the annual task of roster management begin.
Productive Pearce
Tennessee sophomore edge rusher James Pearce Jr. finished the regular season with 8.5 sacks and 11 quarterback hits, ranking first among Southeastern Conference defensive linemen in each of those categories.
Pearce, a 6-foot-5, 242-pounder from Charlotte, ranks second among SEC defensive linemen with his 13.0 tackles for loss.
Rivals or not?
From 2011 to 2020, there wasn’t a more even rivalry in college football than Tennessee-Vanderbilt, with the Vols and Commodores splitting those 10 meetings and totalling the exact same number (273) of points.
Yet Tennessee’s 28-10 win in 2019 started a series winning streak for the Vols that was stretched to five on Saturday. Those five outcomes have been by the average score of 44-14, so are Tennessee’s players still viewing the Commodores as rivals?
“I think they’re a rival,” fifth-year senior linebacker Aaron Beasley said. “They’re another SEC school that’s in our state, and we feel like we run this state, so we definitely want to send that message to them.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.