Tennessee’s recruiting has taken hit after hit over the last few weeks because of all the uncertainty around the search for a head coach and around the program in general. But now the Vols have finally hired a head coach, and it appears as though it’s already paying dividends on the recruiting trail.
Just hours after Jeremy Pruitt was officially announced as Tennessee’s next head football coach, one of the highest-rated wide receivers in the 2018 recruiting cycle took to Twitter to announce that he is now very interested in the Vols.
Jacob Copeland is a four-star wide receiver out of Pensacola, Florida. He’s the No. 53 overall player in the country according to the 247Sports Composite rankings, and he’s the No. 9 wide receiver in the country according to those rankings as well. Copeland took to Twitter to say just hours after Pruitt was announced as the Vols’ newest head coach that Tennessee is one of his top choices.
Tennessee is officially one of my TOP selected schools that I’ll highly be looking into. ?✊? #DOM1N8
— Jacob Copeland ? (@JCope1era) December 7, 2017
He also tweeted out his approval of Pruitt in a follow-up tweet:
That’s my dawg fasho❗️??? https://t.co/kvYD0bcTnx
— Jacob Copeland ? (@JCope1era) December 7, 2017
Pruitt was Copeland’s main recruiter at Alabama while he was still a defensive coordinator there. The Tide were considered one of Copeland’s favorites prior to Pruitt taking the job at Tennessee.
As a junior in 2016, Copeland caught 29 passes for 516 yards and five touchdowns in nine games according to Max Preps. He also carried the ball 32 times for 215 yards and three scores. In his high school career prior to this season, Copeland totaled 2,208 yards of offense in 29 games.
Copeland was a one-time Florida commitment who opened up his recruitment again on November 25th. He holds offers from nearly three dozen schools, including Alabama, Florida, Auburn, Clemson, Florida State, UCLA, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Ohio State, and a myriad of others.
Tennessee currently has just 14 players committed in their 2018 class after a slew of decommitments over the last few weeks. The Vols don’t currently have a true wide receiver committed in their 2018 class.
