Could Phillip Fulmer have matched Butch Jones' recruiting for Vols?
John Adams
Although it’s almost game week for Tennessee football, I can’t resist taking another look at recruiting before the season kicks off.
A football media day conversation with UT linebackers coach Tommy Thigpen gave me the idea. The discussion started with Tennessee’s star-studded linebacking corps of 1997: Al Wilson, Leonard Little and Raynoch Thompson.
Thigpen, a North Carolina linebacker himself, remembers them well, even though he never played against them. But as a graduate assistant coach at North Carolina in the late 1990s, he also remembers how difficult it was to recruit against the Vols.
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“In those days, Tennessee was in the top five in the country,” Thigpen said. “And they had a (recruiting) pipeline from South Carolina to Georgia to North Carolina. There was a fear when Tennessee came (recruiting).
“I remember when (quarterback) Heath Shuler was being recruited. We had zero chance of getting him. And I watched them come through the state and take other top players.”
The Tennessee program was flourishing in those days under coach Phillip Fulmer, who was regarded as one of the best recruiters in the country.
The program wasn’t flourishing when coach Butch Jones took over after the 2012 season. That’s what makes his recruiting success so impressive.
More:Four-star cornerback picks Vols over Alabama, South Carolina
Based on commitments, his current class stands at No. 6 in 247Sports’ composite rankings, which puts him in position to land a top-10 recruiting class three times in five years. It’s questionable whether even Fulmer could have done better under the same circumstances.
And Jones has done it against much stronger competition than the Vols had during the 1990s.
Alabama had good teams in that decade, but it had nothing like the dynasty that it has under coach Nick Saban, who repeatedly has signed No. 1-ranked recruiting classes.
Moreover, Clemson, which is even closer to UT, wasn't an elite program then. Now, it’s a defending national champion.
No way the Tigers could have come into the Knoxville area and taken away high-profile recruits in the 1990s. But they had no trouble doing it this year when they signed wide receivers Tee Higgins and Amari Rodgers.
More:How Clemson football landed Tee Higgins, Amari Rodgers
Despite those recruiting losses, Jones has had plenty of victories against considerable odds.
The Vols haven’t lost fewer than four games in a season since 2004. However, their decline hasn’t prevented Jones from recruiting as though they’re a top-10 program.
Maybe, he can’t go into the Carolinas and experience the success Fulmer did in the 1990s. But he has been able to go almost anywhere in the country and get sought-after recruits.
He got quarterback Quinten Dormady from Texas and quarterback Jarrett Guarantano from New Jersey. He also has a commitment for the 2018 class from four-star quarterback Adrian Martinez in Fresno, Calif.
On Monday, when Tennessee opens the season against Georgia Tech, real football will push recruiting into the background. But if the Vols can finish out this recruiting cycle the way they started it, their next team should be deeper and more talented than this one.
Reach John Adams at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com and on Twitter @johnadamskns.
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