The Recruiting Class of 2005

Remember it? Tennessee - ranked #1. The class that would make us all forget about the 5-6 season. The class that showed Fulmer could still recruit with the best of them. The class that would return the Vols to the top of the SEC and NCAA.

Where are they now?

After seeing Tennessee look slow and skilless in its first two losses, I decided to do some checking on the recruiting classes of the past to see if what I felt was true: that the Vols weren't getting the big time athletes anymore. According to Scout.com, here is where Tennessee ranking in recruiting over the past 5 years:

2003 - 7th
2004 - 9th
2005 - 1st
2006 - 24th
2007 - 4th

The class that jumped out at me for dubious reasons was the 2005 one. These guys ought to be helping now; they are red-shirt sophomores and true juniors. Where were they against Cal? Florida?

Let's take a look at the #1 ranked class in the country, the Class of 2005. For the purposes of the article, we will concentrate on the players Scout.com rated as 4 and 5 star recruits. There are three 3 star recruits currently making up the Volunteer receiving core (Lucas Taylor, Austin Rogers and Josh Briscoe), but the reason Tennessee was touted as recruiting the best crop of players in 2005 was because of the depth of its top players.

(An aside - my own personal experience with high school athletes and these recruiting services has not been positive. I found the reporting and research on these sites to be lazy at best and purposefully negligent at worst.)

There were three 5 star recruits in the class. Only one, LaMarcus Coker, played a role in Saturday's loss in Gainesville. Coker has had a miserable sophomore season thus far, beginning with a suspension for the California game and his inability to produce anything from the Vol backfield. Of the entire class, Coker remains the brightest prospect if he can get his act together off the field.

Demetrice Morley could not. Another 5 star recruit, Morley was dismissed from the team after last year's bowl loss for not making grades. If you wonder why a true freshman is trying to cover Florida's receivers, here is the answer.

The final 5 star recruit in 2005 was Jonathan Crompton. Crompton's career in Knoxville has been relegated mostly to clipboard duties behind Erik Ainge thus far. His chances last season when Ainge went down with an injury showed promise, but he does not look anything like a quarterback that will return Tennessee to past glories. In fact, many Tennessee fans wonder aloud if B.J. Coleman is not the heir apparent to Ainge as the Vol QB.

Three 5 star recruits - one is returning kicks after a suspension, one is waiting in the wings for a shot at being a starter and the other is no longer a Vol. Sound bad? Let's get to the 4 star recruits for the real trouble with the 2005 class.

Tennessee signed thirteen 4 star recruits in 2005. The experts predicted depth and play-making ability out of the group. Tennessee got neither.

The highlight of the group has been Demonte Bolden, who was recruited in 2004 but had to spend a year in prep school to become eligible. Bolden starts on the defensive line and appears to be one of the leaders of the team.

More good news - Rico McCoy is currently starting at linebacker for the Vols and led the team in tackles against Florida. Along with McCoy, center Josh McNeil was named to the SEC all-freshman team last year. McNeil and fellow 2005 recruit Chris Scott are both starting on a suspect Volunteer offensive line.

Montario Hardesty is another 4 star recruit from this class who is contributing to the Vols. Jeff Cotham has seen some time at tight end, though he is not a receiving threat. Wes Brown, Vladimir Richard and Andre Mathis are on the Tennessee bench, offering nothing but depth and practice squad bodies to the team at this time.

Now, the bad. Of the thirteen 4 star recruits, four of them never became or are no longer Vols. Gerald Williams and Aaron Cox never got to Knoxville, though the last information I have read indicates Williams still hopes to be a Vols at some point. Defensive lineman Raymond Henderson was dismissed from the team by Fulmer for making inappropriate remarks to a female minor. Slick Shelley, the best wide receiver recruited in the Class, transferred to Tulsa.

Add 5 star recruit Demetrice Morley to the list of the departed and you are down to eleven of the original sixteen top recruits. Of those eleven, four are currently starting on an unranked team. Coker can still resurrect his season (remember, he was picked 2nd team All-SEC to start the season!) after the off-the-field troubles, but it is hard to excited about a player who seems destined to be dismissed before his time in Knoxville is through. Crompton might emerge as the next great Vol quarterback, though Fulmer has always been reluctant to play running QBs and B.J. Coleman fits the more traditional QB mold. The rest of the class are either servicable (Hardesty, Cottam) or question marks (the bench dwellers).

Which leads us back to the current state of Tennessee football and lots of questions. Is it Fulmer's fault that the best recruiting class of 2005 isn't producing? Are the Volunteer coaches doing a poor job of using/developing talent? Were these guys simply over-rated in the first place? Can Fulmer be held accountable for the actions of teenagers inside and outside the classroom that get them dismissed from the team?

There is plenty of blame to go around for Tennessee's current state of mediocrity. The quick answer is to find better players, but how do you find better players than the best available? How has this class gone so wrong?