UT Vols' second signing day is a letdown
John Adams
Tennessee was on the cusp of the top 15 after the early signing period. But it lost ground on Wednesday's national signing day.
Both results were surprising.
No one should have expected new football coach Jeremy Pruitt to accomplish so much so fast when he was hired by athletic director Phillip Fulmer. He wasn't even on the job full-time since he was still coordinating Alabama's defense on the way to a national championship.
Given the circumstances, it's a wonder UT was ranked in the top 30 after the first signing day. But once the Vols exceeded expectations, it wasn't unreasonable to assume they would make up more ground in February.
More:Here's who the Vols added on signing day
That didn't happen. Why it didn't happen says more about the challenges of recruiting in the SEC than it does Pruitt and his staff.
And it reminds you that Tennessee's climb from the bottom of the conference won't go unimpeded.
It's not as though the Vols disappeared on the second signing day. They were at No. 20 in 247Sports' composite team rankings Wednesday.
In fact, they probably came within two signees of cracking the top 15. But they lost five-star linebacker Quay Walker to Georgia and four-star wide receiver Jacob Copeland to Florida.
Bad enough for Tennessee that it missed on Walker and Copeland. Worse yet, it lost them to SEC East rivals.
More:Vols endure ups, downs in first Jeremy Pruitt signing class
So the Vols ended up ranked eighth in the SEC in recruiting. Since they finished the past season as the worst team in the conference, you could say that eighth signifies progress. But not enough progress for a program with UT's expectations.
However, Tennessee fans might be happy the Vols ranked as high as they did. After all, UT had dropped out of the top 50 during its search for a new coach.
Based on what Pruitt accomplished in a short time, imagine what he can do with a full year to recruit the 2019 class. Don't lose sight of the competition, though.
Florida, like Tennessee, was coming off a losing season and had to assemble its recruiting class on the fly with new coach Dan Mullen. After the second signing day, the Gators were ranked 14th.
Texas A&M faced the same problem after firing Kevin Sumlin and hiring Jimbo Fisher. The Aggies played catch-up with a flourish Wednesday, finishing the day with 12 four-star signees and a No. 16 recruiting ranking.
More:UT Vols coach Jeremy Pruitt's vision for program key to signing JJ Peterson
Meanwhile, at the top of the conference, Alabama didn't repeat as recruiting champion, but Georgia took its place.
Although Alabama had to settle for merely a top-10 class, it might have filled its greatest need when it signed the nation's No. 1-ranked cornerback, Patrick Surtain. The Tide suffered significant attrition in the secondary, so Surtain could compete for a starting position as a freshman.
Georgia separated itself from the competition inside and outside the SEC by signing seven five-star recruits and 15 four-star players. The Bulldogs didn't need Walker to attain that No. 1 ranking.
And they didn't need him nearly as much as Tennessee did.
John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com. Follow him at: Twitter.com/johnadamskns.
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