Nothing is going to be easy for Josh Heupel as long as he’s the Tennessee Vols head football coach. The Big Orange rebuild is a daunting one that has eaten many coaches alive in the past.

Judging from his first few games with the Vols, it appears that Heupel is at least a fairly capable coach. His offensive scheme tends to get receivers open often, the running game has performed admirably, and the Vols’ defense has, frankly, been much better than expected. Unless my eyes deceive me, I believe that if Heupel was given real SEC-level talent, his team could easily compete in the top half of the league.

But, the real question for Heupel right now is: how do you get SEC-level talent to come back to UT? With years of complete program incompetence and a baffling NCAA investigation casting a dark shadow over Knoxville, recruits aren’t exactly falling over themselves to get here.

According to 247 Sports, Tennessee currently has 14 commits in its 2022 recruiting class, with two four-star players and twelve three-star prospects. The class is ranked 30th nationally and is nothing particularly impressive. Heupel scrambled as much as he could in his early days with the program and salvaged the No. 23 class in America for 2021. When he was at UCF, Heupel never put together a class ranked higher than 60th and had an average class ranking of 66. Although, with that talent, he produced an impressive 28-8 record.

Realistically speaking, there’s no solid proof that Heupel is an incredibly effective recruiter. Add to that the fact that he’s fighting a steeply uphill battle with a gravely injured program and the aforementioned NCAA investigation and you could definitely say I’m concerned that Heupel might not be able to bring in the best set of players quickly enough to get the job done.

But, there is certainly hope.

Heupel strategically brought in staff members that have recruiting prowess. Defensive line coach Rodney Garner has long been known as a top-notch recruiter in the SEC. And guys like quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle and offensive coordinator Alex Golesh have shown promise by going out and grabbing four-star quarterback Tayven Jackson.

Also, the opening up of the transfer portal gives hurting programs like UT a place to turn to find a pipeline of game-ready talent. And the changing of name/image/likeness rules and the new ability to legally get players paid could be massive for a resource-rich program like Tennessee. In short, all is not lost for the Vols’ recruiting aspirations.

It will certainly be interesting to see how the 2022 recruiting class unfolds. Heupel will win a large amount of fan favor if he can squeak out a winning season and cobble together a top-25 recruiting class that consists of at least some amount of exciting players. It’s all about the Jimmys and Joes in SEC football and perhaps nothing will impress me more in Heupel’s first season than if he can find a way to bring great talent back through Tennessee’s damaged doors.

Featured image via Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports via Imagn Content Services