Recruiting tends to take a bit of a back seat once the football season begins, but with Tennessee entering their first bye week of the 2019 season, the Vols’ coaches will likely be hitting the recruiting trail very hard over the next week and next weekend. That work started early, as UT sent out an offer to a new offensive lineman target in the 2020 cycle this weekend.
James Pogorelc is a tall offensive tackle who plays for Chantilly High School in Chantilly, Virginia. The 6-foot-7, 265-pound lineman has picked up a multitude of offers since his senior year began, and Tennessee became just the latest to offer him on Sunday.
Thankful to receive an offer from the University of Tennessee‼️ pic.twitter.com/1Sy3OOTw3s
— James Pogorelc (@jamespogo33) September 23, 2019
According to 247Sports, Pogorelc is the No. 495 overall prospect and No. 37 offensive tackle in the 2020 class. He doesn’t have a composite ranking at the moment.
Since the beginning of September, Pogorelc has added offers from eight Power Five schools including the Vols. Other teams to offer him include Arizona State, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, North Carolina, Virginia, and Stanford. He also added offers from UCLA, Rutgers, and Purdue in August.
The 6-foot-7 Pogorelc hasn’t always been on the offensive line. He started out as a defensive end and played wide receiver/tight end in his early years of high school. But thanks to lifting a lot of weights and adding on a lot of pounds, he’s now a fast-rising offensive lineman who is gaining a lot of attention from Power Five programs looking for new OL targets.
While watching his film, Pogorelc’s aggressiveness immediately stands out. He plays with tenacity and physicality, and his team looks like they run the ball a lot, which plays into his strengths well as a blocker. You can also tell he used to play at a skill position and on the defensive edge because he moves well, has good footwork, and has a strong burst off the snap. Pogorelc also looks like a smart lineman from his highlight tape. There isn’t much film of him pass blocking, however, and it’s pretty apparent from his initial senior year film that the competition he’s going up against isn’t the most stellar. But Pogorelc clearly has a lot of potential and is really good in run blocking.
As of right now, Tennessee has three offensive linemen committed to them in their 2020 class, but all three are interior linemen. Four-star center Cooper Mays, three-star guard Javontez Spraggins, and three-star guard James Robinson are all committed to the Vols. Tennessee hasn’t targeted a ton of tackles in the 2020 cycle, and with true freshman Wanya Morris starting at left tackle this season and both true freshman Darnell Wright and redshirt sophomore K’Rojhn Calbert playing at right tackle, it’s understandable why tackles in the 2020 class may not want to commit to UT.
But Pogorelc is a bit of a project, albeit with a good amount of upside. He shouldn’t be counted on to come in and contribute at tackle right away, which would play well into Tennessee’s plan of building for the future on the offensive line.
