Tennessee’s second recruiting class under head coach Josh Heupel featured 29 new players, including 24 high school prospects, as announced on the first day of the early signing period on Wednesday.
Four members of the class will join the team as FBS transfers, while 23 of the prospects will enroll in January and then participate in spring practice. A significant portion of that group is already on campus participating in the Vols’ Capital One Orange Bowl practices as permitted by NCAA rules.
“For everybody that’s here, I’m proud of the class that we put together,” Heupel said. “For the guys that are here currently, you’re not going to walk into the backend of the season, learn an entire playbook and know what to do. You get a chance to sit in meetings. You get a chance to go out there and do a lot of individual work. You get a chance to compete in some one-on-one situations. As much as anything, I think they learn the tempo of the game. They learn what it feels like to be a college athlete. I think it creates urgency in the way they prepare when they get back to campus.”
The #RockyTop23 class was ranked as high as No. 10 nationally by 247Sports.com. The Vols signed two five-star prospects in quarterback Nico Iamaleava (pronounced ee-ah-MAH-LAY-ah-va) out of Long Beach, California, and defensive lineman Daevin Hobbs (pronounced DAY-vin) from Concord, North Carolina. Both standouts are ranked in On3.com’s top 20 overall players.
Heupel and the staff hauled in a loaded defensive class that features 16 players, including six defensive linemen, five defensive backs and four linebackers. All five defensive backs are already on campus participating in bowl practices.
The state of Tennessee’s top two consensus players in edge rusher Caleb Herring and linebacker Arion Carter chose the Vols.
“To get two of the top players inside the state and guys that will be able to help us for a long time is important,” Heupel said. “This group of guys is highly talented. I believe that there are going to be dynamic, elite players inside of this group. We were recruiting this off of a lot of outside noise still when we began this process with these guys.”
