Season opener could be recruiting opportunity for Tennessee football | Adams

One thing you can count on in SEC football : Patsies .

They’re as much a part of the conference landscape as tailgating and Paul Finebaum. And no matter how many conference games the SEC plays, its members always will make room for sure wins.

Included in the opening-week patsy lineup for the SEC: Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Alabama A&M, Furman, Eastern Kentucky, Murray State, Old Dominion, Temple, and Chattanooga. I won’t waste words telling you who will be beating them Saturday.

Since the current SEC scheduling format allows for three patsies, there will be more to come. If a program is particularly creative and farsighted, it might squeeze four relatively helpless opponents into its 12-game, regular-season schedule.

The conference requires one nonconference game against a Power Four opponent. You can’t be sure what opponent from a major conference will be woefully lacking in talent from one season to the next. However, you can make an educated guess.

Illinois from the Big Ten should be an SEC target. The school that once gave you Red Grange, aka the “Galloping Ghost,” no longer can gallop beyond mediocrity. Illinois has won more than seven games only once – in an eight-win 2022 season – in 16 years.

The SEC somehow has managed to overlook Illinois as a solid steppingstone to a better record but generally gets high marks for carefully crafted scheduling. Its affinity for MAC opponents is well documented.

Many SEC schools have prospered from scheduling less endowed in-state opponents. Such matchups not only bolster your won-loss ledger. They qualify as an act of charity for anyone who values “keeping your money in state.”

Tennessee’s in-state choice of charity this season is Chattanooga. The Vols will open their season Saturday against the Mocs, who – in a best-case scenario – will prevent UT’s score from rising as high as the temperature.

It’s more than the proverbial win-win parlay of seasons past, though. It’s not just: Tennessee gets a win, and Chattanooga gets a paycheck. It’s also a recruiting opportunity for the Vols.

No matter how infirm an in-state opponent might be, it’s not void of competent players. In fact, it might have a player worthy of whatever SEC team is grinding it into the turf. So, who’s to say today’s opposing player couldn’t become tomorrow’s transfer?

It’s ingrained in coaches to study patsies with the same resolve of a powerhouse opponent. An extra benefit from doing their due diligence: discovering a recruit who could enhance their next season’s depth chart.

You can find those recruits anywhere. Two Chattanooga players transferred to Power Four schools after last season. Wide receiver Jamoi Mayes was especially busy, transferring to UAB, then Illinois, and offensive lineman Colin Truett transferred to Baylor.

I’m not suggesting a coach should put a full-court recruiting press on an opposing player moments after a one-sided victory. However, a cordial postgame exchange between players wouldn’t constitute tampering.

I could imagine a Vol telling a Moc: “Hope to see you next season.” Or more pointedly, “You would look good in orange and white.”

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As players capitalize on revenue sharing and NIL deals, the disparity between the haves and have-nots will increase. As one of the “haves,” Tennessee perhaps could benefit more fully by loading up its nonconference schedule with in-state schools.

Treat players from those schools to the game-day experience at Neyland Stadium. And give the best of those players a chance to see beyond the scoreboard.

Then, you wouldn’t just be scheduling a patsy or keeping football revenue in the state. You would be recruiting.

John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com . Follow him at: twitter.com/johnadamskns.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Season opener could be recruiting opportunity for Tennessee football | Adams