KNOXVILLE – Tennessee concluded its 2020 recruiting class on National Signing Day.
The Vols signed a total of 23 players in its 2020 class – 21 during the Early Signing Period and two on National Signing Day.
The Early Signing Period took place Dec. 18-20, allowing Tennessee to have 46 days to complete its class.
Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt discussed his approach, if he and his staff regroups the Vols’ recruiting board of prospects following the Early Signing Period, and if they hold scholarship spots for potential transfers or high school seniors on National Signing Day.
“As far as holding a scholarship, I think lots of times it depends on your roster,” Pruitt said. “I think everybody’s rosters are a little bit different. You can look at guys based off of numbers and you can also look at it based off of depth at certain positions or maybe even age at certain positions.
“Maybe you have some guys that you think have a chance to be really good players but if you could take a guy that is 22 as opposed to 18, he may come in and help immediately before that guys could. So, it probably differs with each school.”
Pruitt also discussed what he and his staff looks for when recruiting prospects whether it is during the Early Signing Period or on National Signing Day.
“We have critical factors for each position,” Pruitt said. “For a defensive back, does he have the ability to play man-to-man, can he tackle in space and what kind of range of ball skills does he have? That’s three critical factors that you’ve got to be able to do to be a successful defensive back in this league.
“There is a height, weight and speed component in there and there are the intangibles – toughness and dependability – each of those things is important. Each individual position has the critical factors that we are looking for. We have a grading scale that we go by. They have to hit certain marks and if they hit them then that’s what we believe it takes to have success in this league. That’s how we go about ranking our players and setting our board and deciding. When you’re recruiting high school kids, to get the correct information is tough because everybody’s not going to the combine and the competition that guys are playing against, all these things you have to take into account. Also, what kind of program are they coming from? Do they have a great weight program, a great nutrition program? All these things can create an advantage for a kid in his development or a disadvantage. You’ve got to take all these things into account.”