Tennessee signee Alontae Taylor talks about his recruitment, Jeremy Pruitt

Four star athlete Alontae Taylor has already wrapped up his recruitment, but he’s still taking part in the Under Armour All-America game. With that comes media availability and SBNation was able to catch up with one of the newest Tennessee Volunteers.

Taylor was committed to Tennessee until Butch Jones was fired. The uncertainty around the program made Taylor look elsewhere, until Jeremy Pruitt took over.

He was asked how he felt about Tennessee after the coaching change. Taylor was candid, saying the Vols didn’t have much of a chance.

“Very slight. I didn’t know who the coach was going to be,” Taylor said. “I didn’t know if I was going to have enough time to build a relationship. I kept them off of my top schools after I decommitted, just because I didn’t know if I was going to have enough time to build that relationship. I wasn’t really considering Tennessee much.”

Taylor said that Louisville, Georgia and Wake Forest were the new top three for him. The four star athlete said that he was “shocked” to learn that Tennessee had hired Jeremy Pruitt away from Alabama.

“With the way Alabama is going I didn’t think a coach would want to leave. I had talked to coach Pruitt before, so when he was hired, I was like — okay he knows me. I let him reach out to me, then I set up an official visit — which I didn’t have one set up for a while.”

Taylor was then asked what made Pruitt such a good closer on the trail. “He’s real,” Taylor said quickly. “He doesn’t sugarcoat anything. He’s not going to tell you what you want to hear. He’s going to let you know what it is and what it’s going to be.”

Taylor did admit that he grew up as an Alabama fan, but we won’t hold that against him. “My main goal is to get Tennessee back it’s supposed to be. I just have to do what I can as a freshman.”