Episode 154: Recruiting cycle winding down, heating up

GoVols247's Wes Rucker, Patrick Brown and Ryan Callahan went into Fort Rucker Studio to break down all things Tennessee football heading into the final stages of the 2019 recruiting cycle. There aren’t many spots left in Tennessee’s class, but there are several elite prospects still showing significant interest in the Vols, and this episode ends with a detailed discussion with Callahan on some of those prospects. Actual team news hasn’t been tough to spot in the past week, either. Tennessee safeties Charles Kelly accepted a position on Nick Saban’s Alabama staff, meaning the Vols are back to maximum capacity (they were overcapacity) in the full-time staff department. Kelly wasn’t someone Vols coach Jeremy Pruitt was happy to lose, but the fact is at least one person will go, and for now, that means the Vols are back to 10. They’ve lost two full-time staffers and hired two more so far in the offseason. More chances could come in the future, but as of now it looks like there’s at least a decent chance that Pruitt has his staff in place moving forward. Which positions those coaches will coach, though, remains to be seen. Will the Vols use six full-time assistants on offense and use just four (plus Pruitt) on the defensive side of the ball? Or will they even things up a bit? We also discuss that in this episode. Another Tennessee player — senior-to-be linebacker Austin Smith — has gone into the NCAA transfer portal. That doesn’t mean Smith is definitely joining the list of players who’ve opted to leave the program, but it means he’s definitely joined the list of those potentially leaving the program sometime before or after spring practice. Tennessee’s roster management moving forward also is discussed in this episode. This is the week’s football podcast, but we had to discuss the top-ranked Tennessee basketball team’s overtime win at Vanderbilt on Wednesday night in Nashville, and the first 14-or-so minutes of this episode were spent breaking down the latest Vols-Dores thriller. Our other coworker couldn’t make it to Fort Rucker to record this week’s football podcast. That coworker — we won’t mention his name, but his rhymes with Aunt Gramey — was ridiculed in absentia. Hint: He participates in a Bachelor fantasy league — or BachBracket, as it’s also called. So in lieu of this week’s Grant Gun Show Question of the Week, we decided to drop some knowledge that made everyone a winner.