Tennessee football’s red-hot recruiting stretch has the Vols catching the attention of a multitude of college football personalities.
One of said personalities is 247sports’ Josh Pate who discussed his confidence Josh Heupel’s program on “The Late Kick” podcast Sunday night.
“Tennessee is the program to keep an eye on,” Pate said. “If you want to know which program that is not currently at the head table of college football will probably be the next one given their current trajectory to join the head table of college football, it’s Tennessee.”
Recruiting is the life blood of college sports and one of the reasons Pate is bullish on Tennessee’s program is because of the way Josh Heupel and his staff have not only recruited but also evaluated talent.
After landing commitments from four-star safety Lagonza “Shaedy” Hayward and four-star tight end DaSaahn Brame over the weekend the Vols now have the No. 5 recruiting class in the country according to the 247sports team rankings.
“Josh Heupel is very cerebral about how they recruit.” Pate said. “It’s not checkers, man. It’s more chess with this guy. He’s very, very intentional about what they do. They’re very intentional and they’re excellent at how early they identify kids and how ahead of the curve they are in evals. They’re really good at that and that just means that they get a head start on some other programs on kids they’re going to end up competing with.”
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Another factor helping Tennessee on the recruiting trail is the structure of its NIL Collective “Volunteer Club.” The Vols have had success on the recruiting trail in the new NIL landscape but as Pate explains, Tennessee’s success is about more than just being the highest bidder in recruiting battles.
“The NIL structure is top notch there,” Pate said. “If you don’t know any better you think that just means they have a lot of money they can throw around. They do have a lot of money they can throw around. But that is not NIL recruiting anymore.
“Tennessee, though, is one of the sneakiest well put together NIL operations in college football right now. Not just because they have money they can spend. It’s because they understand not just the A part, but the B, C, D, E, F, G part as well.”
Josh Heupel enters his fourth season with a 27-12 (14-10 SEC) as Tennessee’s head coach. The Vols burst onto the national scene with an 11-2 season in 2022 that included wins over Florida, LSU, Alabama and Clemson. Tennessee came just short of making the four-team College Football Playoff due to a late season upset loss at South Carolina.
After taking a step back in 2023, Tennessee is looking to make the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff in 2024. Optimism is high in Knoxville thanks to stout offensive and defensive lines and the high ceiling of former five-star quarterback Nico Iamaleava.
“There’s a lot of really good in their program right now that is knocking on the door of great to elite but that is the next step,” Pate said. “It wasn’t an overnight thing. Josh Heupel didn’t walk in and they became Alabama 2.0. It is happening at Tennessee in what’s a much more realistic way. A much more realistic way is step-by-step-by-step-by-step.”
