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I Have In My Possession The Names Of 57 Volunteer Sympathizers!

By David Hooper

With less than two weeks before National Signing Day (NSD) is upon us, it's finally time to gear up the creepy-high-school-athlete-stalker machine.  This has been perhaps the most entertaining football offseason in Knoxville for several decades; we had our first "outsider" coaching hire since, well, whoever was the first UT football coach.  We've seen an entirely new coaching model established - one where the assistants take the lion's share of the payroll and average 9 years older than the head coach himself.  (Note:  that average does not include graduate assistants.)  We've also seen a top-10 recruiting class dip as far down as #22 (Scout) while gaining a considerable number of official visitors and players who have the Big Orange moving up their preference list.  And not to be forgotten, we've seen top-flight recruits told they'll have better luck somewhere else where their skillsets are more appreciated.

So we turn to hiding out in trees and peering through the windows of 18-year old guys in top physical condition - wondering if they'll be coming to our neighborhood anytime soon.  If it sounds creepy, that's only because it is creepy.  Following recruiting is highly addictive and not really something I'd recommend if you don't have reason to do it.  I follow it very loosely, and that mostly to keep up with conversations here, but in the meantime I have compiled a list of recruits that should bear interest to UT fans.

Over the next few days, I'll disseminate that list in pieces (somewhere around 10-20 names at a time).  Rather than duplicate the writings of the professional stalkers recruiting sites (other site link), I'll give you a quick bullet point list of their position, some links, and schools who appear to be UT's biggest competitor for them.  Obviously, we won't sign all 57 of them, but this gives us a place to start looking.  I'll list them alphabetically by last name so you can see if I've missed anybody you think should be on the list.

Corrections are welcome. Leave a comment to add/subtract information, revise information, add new names, or even subtract a name.  I plan on having an up-to-date list available by the time NSD gets here, so any feedback you give will help.  Oh, and provide links if you can.  Links are great.

So here's the first batch of names (last names beginning with A - G):

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