He sounds insanely excited about being back at Tennessee, especially to be coaching the kids again.  You can just hear it in his voice how excited he is to be back at UT.

As a summary, Smith basically talks about his playing days at UT, some players he coached in the NFL, meeting new Vol DC and how their philosophies are similar, and he also talked about how the players won’t just play with passion on the field but will be gentlemen off the field.

I think this guy will be a better hire than Ed O, you can just hear it in his voice.  Plus, he’s got the track record to prove he can coach.

Chuck Smith Interview | 104.5 The Zone

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The Vols were facing a botched recruiting class less than a month ago, but new Head Coach Derek Dooley righted the ship and pulled in an excellent list of commits.  To be exact, UT grabbed the number 9 class, beating other NCAA teams such as Notre Dame, Penn State, and 2011 opponent Oregon.

While recruiting rankings are only a basis to build a case upon, they are telling in that the Vols got commits from one 5-star and 12 4-star recruits. 

Four of these were wide receivers, most notably Da’Rick Rogers, who was the number one recruit from Georgia and the number two recruit in the nation according to some recruiting websites.  Some have said that this may be the best WR recruiting class in the history of Tennessee football, but we’ll have to wait to see how the recruits pan out before we can claim that.

Tennessee also picked up three great QBs who will make this fall even more competitive.  Tyler Bray was the recruit everyone was talking about late last season, but now Matt Simms and Nash Nance have entered the picture.  Bray appears to have the best potential, but he’s still underweight and may need a redshirt year in order to get ready for SEC play.  None of these QBs are guaranteed a starting job, though, as Nick Stephens is most likely the favorite for the job right now.

Another big pickup for the Vols was James Stone out of Nashville.  Committed to Saban for a long while, he switched on NSD to the Vols after meeting Dooley a week or two before.  Stone is a huge pickup for UT, providing a needed boost to the Tennessee offensive line.  He wasn’t a total surprise, but we still weren’t sure whether he would really switch his commitment.  And after the loss of JC Copeland to LSU, it helped us breathe easier.

Speaking of Copeland, the defensive line is going to be severely undermanned next season.  After watching Copeland unexpectedly switch his commitment to LSU, UT didn’t have any backup plan for the DL.  John Brown will be a huge help, but only if he can keep his grades up, which he has promised to do.  If he can stay eligible, the DL won’t be in nearly as bad of shape.  Overall, though, with Dan Williams gone I expect to see this as an area of concern next season.

Overall, though, Tennessee did a fantastic job on National Signing Day.  I am looking forward to the future for sure, and this fall will be even more exciting than last season in my opinion as Coach Dooley coaches his first game wearing the orange.

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• 2010 Signing Day Central | UTSports – Coach Dooley will have his comments released here later, and there is a position breakdown of who was signed, where they were signed from, and clickable images that lead to the recruits’ profiles.
• List of Signees | GoVolsXtra – A complete list of all of the players signed by the University of Tennessee in its 2010 recruiting class.
• National Signing Day Thread – Tennessee Style | 3SIB – A minute by minute look at how the day unfolded, complete with speculation and how it later turned out. 
• Signing Day Giveth … And It Taketh Away | 3SIB – An early look at NSD from Ghost, discussing the possibility of seeing a 3-4 offense next year and what the Vols might do to deal with the DL problem.
• Initial Impressions of Tennessee’s 2010 Recruiting Class | Rocky Top Talk – A quick analysis of National Signing Day for the Vols from Joel, and a list of each recruit with a link to his information and a video of them playing.

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Rumors abound on Twitter that Da’Rick Rogers has already made the switch to Tennessee but that it will be formally announced in the morning.

These rumors take root in the Georgia Bulldogs Rivals message board, where insiders close the program post the news as they receive it from their sources.  Sometimes it’s true, sometimes it’s not, but a Vol fan reposted something big from the main portion of the Georgia Rivals website this afternoon:

… Safety Jakar Hamilton and offensive lineman Kolton Houston are already enrolled in school, having technically inked their scholarships last month.

Five-star receiver Da’Rick Rogers will not be joining them.

Rogers called head coach Mark Richt Monday night that he was going to sign with Tennessee instead. Rogers will make it official during a press conference at Calhoun High Wednesday morning.

If this rumor proves true, it’s a huge pickup for the Vols.  Rogers is undoubtedly one of the best players in this year’s class, and along with the other WR’s (3 4-stars: Justin Hunter, Ted Meline, Matt Milton) that have committed, I don’t see how it won’t be the best WR class in years.

Still, though, my biggest hope for Tennessee right now lies in James Stone.  The 4-star offensive guard from Nashville would be a huge boost for UT’s recently depleted OL.  Even if we get great QBs, TBs, and WRs, they still need someone to block for them.

It’s hard to believe that 18 year olds can make everyone go so insane for a few weeks, but it truly happens every recruiting season.

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Links for more information about Da’Rick Rogers and James Stone:

• James Stone
  • Rivals Profile
  • Scout Profile
• Da’Rick Rogers
  • Rivals Profile
  • Scout Profile

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WVLT first reported this afternoon that the Vols may be looking at Wilcox to fill the open defensive coordinator position. GoVolsXtra has picked it up since then, though it is still just a rumor at this point.

Rucker still thinks it may be Kevin Steele from Clemson, but it’s hard to tell right now with all of the smokescreens.

Boise’s D was in the Top 15 last year. Wilcox would be a great hire for Tennessee with his experience running a 3 man front, which Dooley is rumored to be implementing in 2010.

That’s not to say that a setback wasn’t confronted, but it wasn’t near the magnitude that we thought.  It also doesn’t hurt to give the new coaching staff (or what’s hired so far) credit, as they have done an amazing job so far getting the Vols back into the top 10 recruiting classes.

But who would have guessed that Tennessee would have more commitments than scholarships to hand out?  What a great problem to have!

It looks like that may be what will be occurring this Wednesday, as Rivals reports that the Vol have 25 commits for the 2010 class.  Eight of those 25 commits are already enrolled, and thus they cannot switch their commitments.

Now if you’re saying, “That’s great, we’ve finished recruiting and thus have our class ready to sign on Wednesday!”  Well… it’s not that simple.

With Da’Rick Rogers and Markeith Ambles in this weekend, it has become a real possibility that one or both may commit.  Both were seen in the Vol student section after the game having a great time, and Rogers was even singing Rocky Top.  Rogers has been to Knoxville for the past two weekends, so I really think we will see him commit.  Ambles, on the other hand, is hard to predict because I think he just likes the attention that being a top recruit brings.

So what will Dooley do if the Vols have too many commits and not enough scholarships?  To be honest, I really don’t know.

But Wes Rucker did post this on Twitter earlier:

Schools get creative. RT @todd_droz: @wesrucker what happens when more recruits commit to a school than the school has scholarships?

And those aren’t the only recruits that have or will change their minds, but those are the most prominent ones that Vol fans will be watching.  Wednesday will definitely be an exciting day to watch and see who the Vols end up with.

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Tonight, we learned that Coach Dooley has made a ‘splash hire’ in the form of two assistant coaches: Harry Hiestand and Bennie Wylie.

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Harry Hiestand has coached at Toledo, USC, Penn, East Strousburg University, Cincinnati, and Illinois, and Missouri.  He’s been a part of conference championship teams at five of those seven stops, including being on the USC staff at the 1998 Rose Bowl.

Hiestand was hired by the Chicago Bears in 2005, and there he has had tremendous success coaching their offensive line.

At Tennessee, Hiestand will most likely be coaching the Vol OL, though no formal announcement has been made yet.

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Bennie Wylie has been the Texas Tech strength and conditioning coach for the past five years, and there he was highly regarded by the Tech players.  He was also the Dallas Cowboys assistant strength and conditioning coach for four seasons prior to his tenure at Texas Tech.

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Both of these guys are big hires for Tennessee.  A great strength and conditioning coach is underrated, and Ausmus was well-liked by the players.  Wylie should be, too.

Hiestand could be a better OL coach than Cregg was, and with us scraping together an offensive line for next year, he will be a huge factor.

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In other news…

Markeith Ambles is in Knoxville this weekend.  The guy knows he is wanted and is making the most of it, you really can’t blame him.  The Vols would love to have him, but if we can get Rogers then Ambles may not be as big of a factor.  Still, good news that he’s made it here.

Nash Nance and Da’Rick Rogers will be around for the Florida basketball game tomorrow.  This could be big news for Vols if they’re hoping to secure Rogers along with Nance in this class.

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While we were all doubting whether Dooley could even save this class, he has gone beyond our expectations and put UT back into the top 10.  Today’s Rivals rankings have the Vols at the number 7 position, but still there are four SEC teams ahead.

Talk about a remarkable achievement.  I didn’t expect Tennessee to do anything more than try and fill this recruiting class, but by the looks of things, the Vols might pull off something huge.

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If you want to read a great article about how Coach Dooley is pulling this off and what recruits and other coaches think of him, read this post at the Third Saturday in Blogtober.  Ghost does a great job bringing all of the recent events together and showing where it points us.

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The latest verbal Volunteer is Rajion Neal, a 4-star 9th ranked tailback in the nation.  From Tyrone, GA, the 5’11” 214lbs running back is just another Georgia commit as Dooley is raiding the state after UGA’s down season.

This comes on the heels of two big commitments, and it’s safe to say that Dooley is doing a great job on the recruiting channel as we speak (or is it as I type?)!

Last time I hit publish he got another one, maybe it’ll happen again!

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Links for more information about Rajion Neal:

Rivals Profile

Scout Profile

Youtube Highlights

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The Vols got a commitment from Juco Mychal Rivera, as he stated, “I’m a Tennessee Volunteer!”  Rivera is a 6’4” 230lbs 3-star tight end from Santa Clarita, CA.  He will fill a needed spot in this Tennessee offense next season behind Luke Stocker, as the other TE Brandon Warren was booted off of the team last season.

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Elsewhere on the recruiting front, Vanderbilt commit Nash Nance changed his mind and has decided to become a Vol.  Nance is a 6’3” 200lb 2-star QB from Calhoun, GA.  This makes him the third quarterback pickup in this recruiting class for the Vols, which should make this spring full of some great competition.

Not to rag on Nance (if Chaney likes him, he must have potential), but the major reason the Vols are excited about this pickup is because he is great friends with Da’Rick Rogers, the #2 wide out in the nation.  No other school besides Tennessee has offered them both, but it is hoped that Rogers will now pick Tennessee over his Bulldogs in order to be on the same team as his buddy.

Rogers has decided that he will choose on National Signing Day, which should make for some great suspense for Vol fans.  The guy would be an amazing pickup for Dooley, there’s no doubt about that.

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In other news, Tennessee still hasn’t grabbed a DC and with all signs pointing towards a pickup after NSD, I’d say it’s a safe bet at this time.  Steele’s name has popped up on Twitter again tonight, though nothing definite has been said.

Wes Rucker’s tweets (Click on numbers for links):

1. Hearing that Kevin Steele might still in the mix for #Vols DC job. Would be after signing day, though. I’m keeping an eye on it.

2. I do think the #Vols plan to announce a DC by late next week, and it will be a name we’ve discussed. Three people have told me this.

3. I caution all of you not to get too excited about this Steele thing. Could just be paranoia from Clemson people. But it’s out there.

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Links for more information:

Mychal Rivera Rivals

Mychal Rivera Scout

Nash Nance Rivals

Nash Nance Scout

Da’Rick Rogers Rivals

Da’Rick Rogers Scout

Wes Rucker’s Twitter Page