Tennessee football recruiting 2014 updates: Volunteers add talent

It didn’t take long for Butch Jones to go to work on his first full recruiting class as head football coach of the University of Tennessee. The Volunteers already have seven verbal commitments, including two from three national prospects. The Volunteers are trying to keep Tennessee talent in-state, and target top recruits from throughout the Southeast as well. 2014 should be a huge class for Tennessee both in number and importance.

Commitments since last update: D’Andre Payne, Treyvon Paulk. Decommitments: none

D’Andre Payne, a top recruit, committed to Tennessee Wednesday morning. Payne stars at cornerback for the Washington (D.C.) Friendship Academy. Payne is a consensus four-star recruit, and is considered one of the best 20 corners nationally at this early juncture in the recruiting cycle.

Payne chose Tennessee over offers from Arkansas, Auburn, Clemson, Cincinnati, Colorado, UConn, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Miami, Michigan, UNC, Ohio State, Ole Miss, Penn State, Rutgers, Texas Tech, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Vanderbilt and Wisconsin. That’s quite the impressive offer list for a 5’9, 170-pound cornerback.

Jalen Hurd, a consensus five-star running back from Tennessee, committed to the Tennessee Volunteers on Thursday morning. Hurd chose the Vols over a large field of competing programs, including their in-state rival, Vanderbilt.

Hours earlier on Wednesday night, Vanderbilt head coach James Franklin sent out a pair of tweets that, when viewed in light of Hurd’s commitment, looked to some like sour grapes, though he does tweet this kind of stuff frequently:

It didn’t take long for Butch Jones to go to work on his first full recruiting class as head football coach of the University of Tennessee. The Volunteers have five verbal commitments, including two from elite national prospects. The Volunteers are trying to keep Tennessee talent in-state, and target top recruits from throughout the Southeast as well.

Commitments since National Signing Day: Jalen Hurd, Todd Kelly, Neiko Creamer, Coleman Thomas