Is Tennessee just...not gonna recruit at all?

I think NCAA investigation hampered a lot of things. However, recruiting is about relationships and Heupel hasn't been in on elite recruits he could convert to Tennessee this cycle because he was formerly the HC of UCF. If Heupel had come directly from a traditional power or even a mediocre team in p5 conference he might've capitalized on the relationships he built there and brought a few over to us (Pruitt did that with more than one recruit) but for the most part UCF is not going to have a ton of recruits that we want in on.

So we're stuck building relationships. I'm hoping we're able to recruit the portal well because right now that seems the fastest way for us to get some more playmakers. It won't give a great recruiting rank but some key guys there and the class is more than salvaged.

It should also be noted that they probably spent most of the offseason recruiting guys already on the roster to keep them from leaving. To be honest, recruiting is going better than I expected. I thought we'd get a top 15 class if we went into the UF game 3-0 and with Nolen in the bag, and we haven't done either of those things and still have an outside shot at a top 15 class.