As of September First, the Chimera is Awake

September First is not exactly a normal day in the week leading up to the first football games of the 2009 season.  The First (which I will capitalize throughout for soon-to-be obvious reasons) is the day in which coaches can get in contact with recruits again; the First is also the first day that the recruiting class of 2011 can be contacted by colleges, including offers.  Despite having to make preparations for Western Kentucky in the very first game of the Kiffin era, the Recruiting Chimera beat the sun to the punch and opened the day with phone calls.

Lots of phone calls.

According to Scout, eighteen high school juniors now hold offers from the Chimera.  Two juniors have already offered verbal commitments to Tennessee:  tight end Eric MacLain from Fayetteville, North Carolina and defensive tackle Anthony Johnson from New Orleans, Louisiana.  Five quarterbacks hold offers from Tennessee, all of whom list UT as a school of interest; this includes Teddy Bridgewater, who has been consistenly in the recruiting news for some time and may very well be the top recruit out of the 2010 class.

As if that wasn't enough, the Chimera was also busy calling up recruits from the 2010 class.  Scout ran a feature story on linebacker Christian Jones, a four-star who has not yet declared a favorite.  I don't know about the rest of you, but by the time Tennessee had made most of their calls, I was lucky to be coherent enough to safely drive on the roads.  By the time I got to campus and began my work for the day, the Chimera had been in contact with over 30 high school recruits (as best as I can estimate, at least).  And that was just the start.

They still had an entire day of preparation for Saturday.