Through the T: Recapping a big recruiting weekend

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Recapping the Georgia visitors

Volquest.com goes in-depth with five-star linebacker Nolan Smith and four-star linebacker Trezman Marshall, fresh off their visit to Knoxville over the weekend. It sounds like Marshall is very much in play, despite still being committed to Georgia. Marshall called Tennessee his No. 2 option right now and says he plans on signing in December.

As for Smith, he told Volquest that former Tennessee head coach Butch Jones never even reached out to him.

“I never been to Tennessee. Coach Butch Jones never called me. Never talked to me at all. I don’t know why. But I talked to coach Sherrer and we got up here and it was fun. I told them I’m not going to take no officials to schools I’m really not considering.” (Via Volquest.com)

Tennessee defensive coordinator Kevin Sherrer was instrumental in getting three Georgia commits on campus this week, it seems. That makes sense, considering he likely played a big role in getting them to commit to Georgia before he joined Pruitt at Tennessee.

Flipping Gray?

Four-star running back Eric Gray is a name that has picked up steam for Tennessee over the last week. That noise is only going to get louder after he cancelled a visit to Michigan to see the Vols over the weekend. The in-state, four-star back has been committed to Michigan since July, but Tennessee is trending up in 247 Sports’ latest crystal ball projections.

The Vols currently don’t have a running back committed to their 2019 class. The 5-10, 193 pound back seems like a possibility now. Gray is the 85th ranked player in the 2019 class and the second-ranked player out of the state of Tennessee, according to 247 Sports.

Vols now have played the toughest schedule in the country

When evaluating year one under Jeremy Pruitt, it’s important to understand what he’s dealing with. Not only is he trying to rebuilt a team that just went 4-8, but he’s trying to do it against the toughest schedule in the country.

S&P+ is fully updated now and Tennessee sits at No. 1 in terms of strength of schedule. That Florida-Georgia-Auburn-Alabama stretch was brutal enough, much less starting the season against a pretty good West Virginia team. Still, through all of that, Tennessee has a shot to make a bowl game on Saturday.