Jeremy Pruitt will look to add to Tennessee's 2018 class

Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt, hired Thursday, has the reputation for being an ace recruiter. The Vols could use a post-hiring surge in their 2018 recruiting class.

Tennessee’s class had 15 commitments as of Friday. The most recent of those commitments came in mid-August.

“In recruiting, we’re going to go mix it up for the best players that fit the University of Tennessee all over the country,” Pruitt said, “because the brand name of the University of Tennessee, it sells.”

Since the start of October, the Vols have had eight players decommit from their 2018 class. No doubt, some of those decommitments can be traced to an eight-loss season, Butch Jones’ firing on Nov. 12, and the Vols’ subsequent 26-day coaching search.

Tennessee’s most recent decommitment came Thursday, when four-star safety Trey Dean revoked his pledge. The most crushing loss was when five-star offensive lineman Cade Mays decomitted on Nov. 7. Mays is a senior at Knoxville Catholic. His father, Kevin, played for Tennessee. Mays has since released a top three of Georgia, Clemson and Ohio State.

“Once we get our staff together, we’ve got to, No. 1, identify who fits at the University of Tennessee,” Pruitt said. “That’s important. Then we’ve got to get in front of them and do the best job that we can do to convince them to come to the University of Tennessee. One thing that I’ve figured out in recruiting is, you worry about the ones you get. You don’t worry about the ones you don’t.”

Tennessee’s crop of commitments is ranked 27th nationally and ninth in the SEC by the 247 Sports composite. The 15-player contingent consists of 12 three-star prospects and three with a four-star rating from 247Sports.

Four-star quarterback Adrian Martinez, who committed in May, is one of the top prospects pledged to Tennessee. Martinez, who is from California, will visit Nebraska this weekend. The Huskers recently hired Scott Frost, a former Nebraska quarterback, to be their coach. Frost had been coaching Central Florida, which is undefeated.

Tennessee’s other four-star commitments are defensive tackles Greg Emerson of Jackson and Brant Lawless from Nashville.

The Vols remain in play for Coffee County’s four-star wide receiver Alontae Taylor, who decommitted from UT on Nov. 12, the day Jones was fired. Taylor on Thursday listed the Vols among his top three, which also included Georgia and Louisville.

Shoring up the recruiting class is a challenge for any new coach, but the task is tougher this year, with the launch of a new Dec. 20-22 signing window for high school players. Previously, high school prospects couldn’t sign until the first Wednesday in February. Prospects still have the option of signing in that traditional signing period if they don’t sign in December.

“I think schools are all sort of trying to figure out how this early signing period is going to affect everyone,” said Ryan Callahan, recruiting editor for GoVols247. “I think the expectation at a lot of places is that probably more than half of everyone’s commitments will end up signing during this early period. But no one really knows for sure yet.”

Pruitt is in his second season as Alabama’s defensive coordinator. He’ll continue his coaching duties with the Crimson Tide through the College Football Playoff. However, he’ll recruit for the Vols in the meantime. The current contact period for recruits continues through Dec. 16.

“Tennessee still has a good chance to rebound from this and finish OK,” Callahan said, “but … the fact that (the Vols went) 3½ weeks without having a permanent head coach in place has obviously thrown a wrench into things and complicated their recruiting efforts down the stretch.

“Considering the circumstances, it could’ve gone worse, but they’ve obviously lost some commitments that will give them some challenges to fill some needs in this class.”