College Football Recruiting: Huge visit weekend on tap for Tennessee

Jeremy Pruitt took on the Tennessee job just two weeks before the new early signing period opened. This new rule is going to change recruiting as we know it, as plenty of top talent will come off of the board December 20th-22nd. It’s put the squeeze on new incoming coaches as they scramble to make quick impressions to try and stay in the hunt.

For Pruitt and his still incomplete staff, it’s been a mad dash. Tennessee is at an even bigger disadvantage, considering how long the search for a new coach dragged on. Instead of having four weeks to work the trail, Pruitt and company will get just 13 days.

That doesn’t mean they can’t sway top talent to Knoxville, however.

They hit the ground running last weekend, hosting prospects and making a ton of new offers. Some of those offers have materialized into visits, some of which will take place on the weekend before recruits can sign with their new teams.

Probably the two biggest names on campus this weekend will be receivers Alontae Taylor and Jacob Copeland. Each are considered four star prospects. Taylor cancelled a visit with Louisville to be visit Tennessee for the second straight weekend, so the Vols seem to be in a good spot with him. Taylor announced that he will sign on December 22nd, likely choosing between Tennessee and Georgia.

**UPDATE** Taylor jumped the gun and committed to Tennessee on Wednesday.

Tennessee got a bump on Copeland the second Jeremy Pruitt arrived. Some of the staff has already paid Copeland an in-home visit. The former Florida commit will check out Knoxville this weekend, but doesn’t plan on signing early.

Here is the list of visitors I was able to gather from searching around Twitter. I’d expect this list to grow. I’ll update this as the news trickles in.

4* WR Alontae Taylor (Tennessee commit)

4* WR Jacob Copeland

4* ATH Marcus Murphy

3* JUCO OL Jahmir Johnson

3* TE Glenn Beal

Grad-Transfer OL Dwayne Wallace

4* OL Jerome Carvin

4* DB Olaijah Griffin

4* RB Jeremy Banks

4* JUCO OL Badara Traore

3* JUCO WR Jaron Woodyard

4* JUCO TE Dominick Wood-Anderson

3* JUCO OG Johncarlo Valentin

3* OL Ollie Lane (Tennessee commit)

3* TE Jacob Warren (Tennessee commit)

3* QB JT Shrout