Tennessee NCAA’s first college football coach, Joshua Heupel, speaks during an introductory press conference at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Wednesday, January 27, 2021. (Caitie McLekin / Knoxville News Sentinel via AP, Pool)
Tennessee Heupel Football
If there’s one thing we can say, it’s that Tennessee football didn’t end National Signature Day in 2021 with the same energy that class had last summer. Season 3-7, the investigation and eventual dismissal of Jeremy Pruitt and the surprise hiring of Josh Heupel would take their toll. From all this arose a wave of unemployment.
Given all of these issues, it’s safe to say that UT’s National Signature Day for 2021 could have gotten a lot worse. In fact, given how it all ended up on paper, the Flights have at least one floor under their program entering Heupel’s freshman year.
Not everything was perfect. The loss of Roc Taylor after taking out an offer created drama earlier this week. Still, things were largely fluid after that. Let us, however, delve into what is good and bad about the program related to your recruiting class. These details will make things look more positive. Here are our top five Tennessee National Football Signature Day stories.
5. An unsigned player
VolQuest continues to show De’Shawn Rucker and wide receiver Andison Coby unsigned. Still, Rucker appears as a member of the UTSports Flight signing class, and appears signed to 247Sports, so he appears to be signed.
Coby, however, is a different story. A January 23 commitment is listed on 247Sports, but is not yet signed on ESPN or VolQuest. UTSports has not yet named him. Given all of this, it looks like Coby has yet to sign.
For what it’s worth, ESPN lists the defensive end of the transfer of Auburn Tigers Markaviest “Big Kat” Bryant also as an unsigned commitment, however, given the fact he deleted his engagement tweet after Tennessee football fired Jeremy Pruitt, let’s get a little out of this by recruiting the story completely. No one knows anything about him, and he’s not a high school or college student.