Tennessee fans will view Josh Heupel's recruiting skills differently after hearing Dylan Sampson's recruiting story
Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel has quickly proven that he can recruit at a high level. The Vols currently have the No. 7 recruiting class in the nation (per 247Sports) just a year after signing the No. 11 recruiting class in the nation. Heupel is recruiting the right way. He isn't selling a false […]
Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel has quickly proven that he can recruit at a high level.
The Vols currently have the No. 7 recruiting class in the nation (per 247Sports) just a year after signing the No. 11 recruiting class in the nation.
Heupel is recruiting the right way. He isn't selling a false bill of goods or making promises he can't keep, which is why Tennessee's success under Heupel should be sustainable for years to come.
While fans are undoubtedly happy with Heupel's recruiting efforts so far, they may be even more impressed by his recruiting skills after hearing the story of sophomore running back Dylan Sampson's recruitment.
Sampson, a former four-star recruit from Baton Rouge, recently joined the "In off the Bench" podcast to discuss a variety of topics.
During the discussion, Sampson revealed that at one point during his recruitment, he told himself that he would never go to Tennessee.
Sampson's mind changed once Heupel was hired to replace Jeremy Pruitt as the Vols' head coach.
"Tennessee was my first Power-5 offer, first SEC offer," explained Sampson. "But I started to get other offers. Mississippi State. I got Florida. I was talking to Bama [and] LSU. I was talking with Georgia. I was talking with schools all over. Cal, Purdue…but there was a point in time when I told myself even though my favorite player went here, I want to play in the SEC, you know, the best conference, I told myself I just can't go to Tennessee. I'll never go to Tennessee — because of what was going on at the time. My recruitment was weird. Communication was weird. I mean, we obviously saw what went on (with the NCAA investigation). Coaching staff (Jeremy Pruitt's staff) got out of the picture. I would just look in the media and it's a player getting in trouble with the law like every other day. And it's like, man, I'm not leaving a place like Baton Rouge to go somewhere that's not going to help me develop as a man. Like no matter how bad I wanted to play in the SEC, I just couldn't do that. So I told myself I would never go to Tennessee."
"Then Coach Heupel started recruiting me at UCF, offered me over there," continued Sampson. "About a week later, he gets the job at Tennessee. He got to Tennessee, they got a new running backs coach, not the running backs coach that he had at UCF, they brought Coach Jerry Mack in from Rice. So I had to develop a relationship with him. But we were talking, about a week later they (Heupel's staff) ended up offering me."
"What really got me was just the family atmosphere," added Sampson. "I would say out of my recruitment, Coach Heupel, out of any head coach that I had an offer from, he talked to me the most. He made it his business to call his recruits face to face at least once a week. You don't usually hear from the head coach. You hear from recruiting people, maybe a position coach, but not the head coach. But he made it his business and made it feel like he wanted me to be there. And I took the visit, felt the energy, felt the love, that family atmosphere, and I just felt like it was the right place for me."
I'm not sure how any fan could doubt Heupel and his coaching staff's status as elite recruiters after hearing that story. A player from Louisiana told himself that he would never go to Tennessee. And now he's coming off a four touchdown performance in the Vols' season-opening win against Virginia.
What else is there to see? Heupel and his staff aren't going to land every recruit that they pursue. There will be some painful misses just like there are for every program. Heupel, however, is going to win more of these battles than he loses as long as Tennessee's success on Saturdays in the fall continues.
Butch Jones reacts to negativity on social media while calling out an unnamed fan base
Former Tennessee Vols head coach Butch Jones reacts to negativity on social media while calling out an unnamed fan base
Featured image via Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
