New staff offers second chance for Tennessee’s upperclassmen

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.— Tennessee’s hopes for a quick resurgence rest in part on its upperclassmen finally performing up to their recruiting rankings.

The Volunteers return 18 juniors or seniors who arrived as four-star or fivestar prospects, according to composite rankings of recruiting sites compiled by 247Sports. None have earned all-Southeastern Conference honors.

A new coaching staff gives them the opportunity to reboot their careers.

“It’s a fresh start for everybody, a clean slate, new coaches here who didn’t recruit you and stuff,” senior defensive tackle Shy Tuttle said. “Like they said when they got here, positions are up for grabs.”

Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt says all players will get the same number of reps in camp regardless of what they’ve done in the past. That means a fresh start for everyone.

“We have lot of competition, which is great,” Pruitt said. “We needed competition, and we’re going to have it this fall camp. It will be exciting for me to see how guys respond and who can be consistent in their performance day in and day out.”

Perhaps that will provide a spark.

Tennessee returns seven juniors or seniors who signed out of high school as top-100 national recruits according to the 247Sports Composite. The Vols also have senior outside linebacker Jonathan Kongbo, rated as the nation’s top junior-college prospect in his class.

Even with all that talent, Tennessee went 4-8 last season and failed to win a Southeastern Conference game for the first time since that league started football competition in 1933.

“I feel like in my Tennessee career, it’s been a hard four years, going on four years, for me,” redshirt junior offensive tackle Drew Richmond said. There has been “a lot of criticism and everything. But I’m blessed I’m still here, you know what I mean? A lot of people aren’t here anymore. I’m still here.”

Richmond, rated by Rivals as a five-star recruit, has started 13 games over the last two seasons while struggling with consistency. He acknowledged feeling pressure to live up to his impressive recruiting ranking earlier in his career.

“Of course I did,” Richmond said. “Now it’s water under the bridge.”