The CheckerBoard

Thanks Ryan, It seems like we have a lot of work to do on this young man. What's the deal with all these kids named Jalen? Was there some famous Jalen around the time they were born? Strange. +1

I think when people say Tennessee doesn't have good talent, they are meaning Tennessee doesn't have good high school talent relative to schools we are directly competing with. The state of Tennessee has 4 of the top 247 players for the class of 2013. Georgia and Florida, 2 of the main schools we are competing with in the SEC east, have 25 and 33 of the top 247 players, respectively. I agree with you that we need to focus on these in state kids, but the fact is there just aren't enough of them from year to year for us to completely focus on the state of Tennessee. I think that is why recruiting is tough for a school like UT. Yes, we have great facilities and tradition and all of that...but we are in a position where we need to lock up the best players in Tennessee AND convince talented players from Georgia, Florida, Alabama, etc to leave their home states to come play for Tennessee. It's a tough deal, especially with us being down recently.