Tennessee Vols: Four-Star 2019 Defensive End Offered By UT

The early signing period will begin this upcoming week, but the Tennessee Vols are also handing out offers to 2019 recruits.

2019 four-star defensive end Marcus Stripling tweeted this weekend that he received an offer from the Tennessee Vols.

Stripling is a 6’3″/260 lb strong-side defensive end from Houston, TX (Mayde Creek). He’s rated by 247Sports as the ninth best 2019 player in the state of Texas and the seventh best 2019 strong-side defensive end in the nation.

In addition to his offer from Tennessee, Stripling also holds offers from Alabama, Georgia, Florida, LSU, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, TCU, Texas A&M and Texas, among several others.

The feeling right now is that Stripling will end up at Texas A&M, though there’s obviously plenty of time for that change.

Honestly, however, I would be surprised if Stripling left the state of Texas.

The Vols currently only have one player committed to their 2019 recruiting class. Te-Cory Couch, a four-star athlete/cornerback from Hollywood, FL (Chaminade/Madonna Prep), committed to Tennessee on June 13. Couch recently received an offer from the new coaching staff at Nebraska (The Cornhuskers recently poached four-star quarterback Adrian Martinez from the Vols).

It’s a good sign that new head coach Jeremy Pruitt is working on the 2019 recruiting class, but it’s clear that his main focus right now is salvaging the 2018 recruiting class.

Pruitt isn’t going to sign a bunch players during the early signing period just for the hell of it. He was very clear during his introductory press conference that he’s only going to sign players that fit what he and his staff are trying to accomplish at Tennessee.

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That’s something that Vol fans need to remember next week when the early signing period begins.