JD PicKell explains how Tennessee can take next step as a program

The Tennessee football team proved itself a national contender in 2022 when it won 11 games and finished ranked No. 6 in the country. So what’s the next step for Tennessee?

While the 2022 campaign could have gone a touch better toward the end, the Volunteers’ excellent season has positioned the program to potentially take a major step toward lasting relevance on the national scene.

“How do you take that next step?” pondered JD PicKell on the On3 YouTube channel. “It sound simplistic. It sounds overly obvious. But the way you take the next step in my mind, you do it again. When I say do it again, you get double-digit wins again in 2023.”

PicKell broke down exactly what he meant.

“2022 can mean whatever you want it to mean for the future of this Tennessee football team,” he said. “I’ve said this many times, I will say it again right now. If next year, Tennessee has things that just don’t go their way and the world falls apart and let’s say they win eight games. Let’s actually be a little bit more bleak. Let’s say they win seven games. Then what was 2022? It was a great memory. That was awesome, we beat ‘Bama. Hendon Hooker got, honestly, snubbed for the Heisman Trophy, but we’ll keep rolling. It’s a great memory.”

But if Tennessee’s next step is a positive one…

“Now if you go out and do it again, you go double-digit wins, make some noise, now this is starting to become more and more of a trend for Tennessee,” PicKell explained. “Now last year wasn’t just a memory. Last year was a building block for this coming season. And it’s all in front of them. It can create that snowball effect.

“When you have that snowball effect as a program, you start putting together double-digit wins in back-to-back years and that’s now how you’re perceived across the college football landscape, think about what that does on the recruiting trail. Tennessee just landed, not just landed but just found out they got the No. 1 player in the country in Nico Iamaleava, quarterback out of California.”

Tennessee’s current recruiting class ranks No. 11 nationally, sitting just outside the Top 10.

PicKell thinks, though, that the Volunteers could pull in even more highly rated classes if they can sustain the on-field momentum in 2023 and beyond. That’s how Tennessee can take the next step.

“The more that you win and the more that you prove come to Tennessee, win ballgames, get developed, get to the league, it gets you more access to players like Nico,” he said. “Soon you’re getting more highly rated recruiting classes.

“I’m not down on their recruiting class right now, do not get it twisted. I think they have a ton of momentum, doing a lot of great things in that class. But it continues to propel you from a talent acquisition standpoint.”