Tennessee's football signing class in this week's early period has grown to 16 with the addition of Kaemen Marley, a 6-foot-2, 215-pound athlete prospect from Eastern Randolph High in Ramseur, North Carolina. Marley is the No. 4 athlete and the No. 145 overall prospect nationally in the 247Sports.com composite rankings.
Third-year coach Jeremy Pruitt had this to offer on the first 14 who signed on Wednesday:
TE Trinity Bell; Albertville, Alabama
"When he was in the seventh grade, my dad was the head football coach there, and he called me and said, 'Listen, there's a kid here in the seventh grade. I don't know if he's going to play in the NFL or play in the NBA, but he's going to play somewhere.' So he's a young man who I've known probably since he was 12 or 13 years old. He was probably 6-4 then but is now 6-7, 265 pounds, plays tight end and can play multiple positions. He plays defensive end. He's a guy who's just extremely athletic."
RB Cody Brown; Lilburn, Georgia
"Cody's a guy who rushed for over 5,000 yards in his career, and that's hard to do anywhere. He's a guy who's used to having the ball in his hand and runs behind his pads. He has really good vision, is a really good student and is a guy who's been committed to us for a long time."
TE Miles Campbell; Douglasville, Georgia
"If you watch his tape, he kind of plays all over the field. His junior year in high school, he played a lot of quarterback. He's a guy who we're going to focus on at tight end, but he's a guy who's played wide receiver and defensive line. He's a very instinctive guy."
DB Christian Charles; Gainesville, Georgia
"He's a guy who played high school quarterback, but he's going to play defensive back for us. He's a guy who's going to be a midyear (enrollee). He's probably a 10.6 or 10.7 (seconds in the 100-meter dash) guy who weighs 185 pounds. He's very instinctive and very tough."
DL KaTron Evans; Chesapeake, Virginia
"I can remember KaTron when he was in about the eighth or ninth grade coming to a camp. He looked like he could play then for us. He didn't get a chance to play his senior year because they didn't have football there at St. Frances, but he's a guy who can really play up and down the line of scrimmage."
247Sports.com photo / Four-star defensive tackle KaTron Evans, who didn't get to play his senior season, is among the Tennessee additions in this week's early signing period.RB Tiyon Evans; Hutchinson (Kansas) CC
"Tiyon is from Hartsville, South Carolina, and he's a guy who we felt like is one of the premier running backs in the country. He will be here midyear also. We feel like he's a guy who can play all three downs, and he has return ability. He's probably 220 pounds. He has really good hands out of the backfield and is a good blocker. He's a guy who can make you miss, can run with power, can run in between the tackles and can get out there on the perimeter."
OL J'Marion Gooch; Gallatin, Tennessee
"He's 6-6, 350 pounds and really has only played two years of football. He came to our camp two years ago and had never participated in football. He's just a big massive and athletic guy, and he's a guy who's very instinctive. He has tons of upside and plays with an edge, and he's someone we feel like could probably play up and down the line of scrimmage."
DL Amari McNeill; Suwanee, Georgia
"He's a guy who we kind of got in with late in the process, and there are lots of guys like that this year because of the lack of spring recruiting and summer camps. Kind of through diligence of working the phones, we came across this guy. He played left tackle in high school, and he also played defensive tackle. He's a guy who we think is extremely athletic and can play on either side of the ball."
WR Walker Merrill; Brentwood, Tennessee
"He's a guy who we've been recruiting for a while since we've been here. He's just a really good playmaker, and he's very instinctive, plays with lots of toughness and had a great senior season. He's a guy who will be a midyear enrollee, and he's a guy who will be in our wide receiver rotation pretty quick."
ATH Julian Nixon; Roswell, Georgia
"I've known Julian's dad since we were in high school. We grew up in the same hometown and played college ball together. We used to drive back and forth to school together. Julian is a guy who is 6-4 and probably 235 or 240 pounds. He's very athletic and has huge hands and just really tracks the ball extremely well. He's a mismatch type of guy out there on the perimeter and one we're excited about for sure."
OL William Parker; Nashville
"The last time I saw William, he was probably 6-5 and about 335. He's probably one of the better athletic big men in the entire country. He's a guy who could really play on either side of the ball, but we're going to play him on offense. He comes from a program at Pearl-Cohn where they've had a lot of success. One of the first times I went on the road, I'm sitting in the gym at Pearl-Cohn, and there's this kid who's very large, has on boots and is dunking it any way he wants. Then the coach there tells me he's just getting him to go out for football."
QB Kaidon Salter; Cedar Hill, Texas
"He's a guy who we targeted very early in the process. He plays in one of the better leagues in Texas. He's having a phenomenal year down there. He's a winner, and he's a leader."
LB Aaron Willis; Midlothian, Virginia
"He's another guy who we've been recruiting for a long time. He has a great motor and probably can play all the spots at inside linebacker for us. He's a great special teams player. He's just all over the field."
RB Jaylen Wright; Durham, North Carolina
"Jaylen is an athlete who we'll probably play at running back and kick returner. He's a guy who you want to get the ball to out in space. Last winter, he ran the second-fastest 60-meter time in the country. He's a guy who weighs 205 pounds and will probably weigh 215. He has really good speed and can assist us really early on in the return game."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.