Tennessee’s 2018 recruiting cycle took a number of twists and turns all the way even up until National Signing Day. This class originally looked as though it would be an elite class, as Butch Jones once had Tennessee’s class ranked inside the top 5 nationally by most of the major recruiting services.
Then the 2017 season happened for the Vols. Then Jones was fired. Then Tennessee had arguably the most convoluted coaching search in college football history. Then Jeremy Pruitt was finally hired as head coach, and he and his staff had to work hard to salvage together an early signing period class. Then came National Signing Day, and the Vols’ 2018 class was finally wrapped up.
The Vols suffered many decommitments during the 2018 recruiting cycle. In fact, two of their commits flipped on National Signing Day, leaving the Vols with a smaller signing class than they would’ve liked.
Tennessee ended up with 20 official signees and two players who project to receive blueshirts in the class. That brings their 2018 class to 22 players. However, the Vols suffered just as many decommitments in the 2018 class as they ended up with actual prospects signing.
The Vols had 22 players decommit from them during the 2018 recruiting cycle. Ten of those 22 players decommitted after Pruitt was hired, and the other 12 decommitted between January 2017 and the end of November 2017.
Of the 22 players who decommitted, nine were projected to play on offense while 13 were projected to play on defense. Seven of those 22 players who decommitted were defensive backs, the largest of any position group.
The players that decommitted from the Vols during the 2018 cycle were enough to fill out a recruiting class of their own. And we’re taking a look at where all those decommits ended up signing for the upcoming 2018 football season.
All rankings are via the 247Sports Composite rankings
