Multiple national media outlets are pushing the same doom-and-gloom stories about the Tennessee Vols this week.

But those stories ignore Vols head coach Josh Heupel’s plan.

On Wednesday, The Athletic pointed out Tennessee as a program that’s off to a “slow start” in recruiting for the 2027 cycle.

“Another team off to a slow start: Tennessee. The Vols finished with the No. 8 class in 2026 but are just at No. 32 for the Class of 2027, with only six blue-chippers among the 16 commitments,” noted the story from The Athletic. “Landing four-star wide receiver Kesean Bowman, the nation’s No. 56 prospect, from Brentwood, Tenn., was a positive development for coach Josh Heupel and his staff in March, but the Vols have had a quiet June with just three top-400 commitments. With classes across the country filling up, Tennessee may not have much time to make up significant ground between now and December.”

CBS Sports pushed a similar story as they included Tennessee as one of eight programs they believe are struggling in recruiting.

“Tennessee has landed three of the top 10 in-state recruits in the 2027 class,” wrote CBS Sports’ Cody Nagel. “But those wins could feel a little hollow if the Vols can’t keep Chattanooga five-star running back David Gabriel Georges at home. That recruitment feels massive for Tennessee’s class… Landing him could immediately boost the Vols into the top 30 nationally and as high as 10th in the SEC. That kind of jump would matter for a program trying to avoid unfamiliar territory. Tennessee hasn’t finished outside the top 10 of the SEC recruiting rankings since 2013”

The recruiting takes about Tennessee couldn’t be worse if they tried

First off, anyone comparing recruiting rankings right now to anything before the last couple of seasons is misguided. The sport is completely different now. No program acquires talent now the way they did in 2013. So how can you compare the two different eras? Bringing up recruiting rankings from 10 to 15 years ago when the transfer portal didn’t exist is laughable and very shortsighted.

Beyond that, these doom-and-gloom recruiting takes completely ignore that Tennessee, like many programs, has shifted its focus to immediate production over stockpiling high school talent. Now, that doesn’t mean that Tennessee is ignoring high school talent — that’s ultimately where every college football player is born — but they’re not going to sign 30 players in a class and then watch over half the class sit for two years and transfer. That’s not efficient, nor is it sustainable from an NIL cost standpoint.

It’s been made very clear this offseason that Tennessee doesn’t want as much money standing on the sidelines holding a clipboard moving forward.

“Tennessee is trying to get to the point where they’re not paying a ton of money — they’re not overspending — for players that aren’t going to play right away,” explained VolQuest’s Austin Price in May. “Or they’re not sure [if they] are going to play right away.

“They’ve (Tennessee) had too much money standing on the sidelines the last several years because they went a certain path with the rev share and NIL stuff,” continued Price. “They’re trying to get to the point where they spend it on players that are going to play and make an instant impact. If you’re going to have a bunch of money tied up, it needs to be tied up in guys who are on the field, and that’s what they’re trying to get to now. Inevitably, you’re going to spend some money on some players that aren’t going to play right away, but they’re trying to eliminate that as best as they can.”

Tennessee has landed most of its top targets during this recruiting cycle, and they’ve backed off of some targets — which they likely would’ve otherwise landed — due to the cost (you can’t buy them all).

There’s absolutely no reason anyone should be putting major stock into recruiting rankings right now. There will be cycles when the Vols go heavier on high school recruiting, and other cycles where they’re more active in the transfer portal. That’s true for a lot of programs (it just depends where a team’s roster is at that point in time).

There are too many folks in the national media who are still looking at college football through the same lens they looked at it through to 10 to 15 years ago.

But here’s the truth, whether old school fans like it or not: anything that happened before the explosion of NIL and the transfer portal (pre-COVID essentially), is completely irrelevant to college football now. It might as well be two different sports.