National Signing Day is here and Tennessee made up for a couple of disappointing decommitments over the last week with one really nice signing day surprise.  This class is loaded with speed and playmakers and addresses many of the Vols' key needs. 

Here is all you need to know about each player who has signed their letter of intent. 

With only a few hours remaining until NSD, things have certainly changed since my last post. Dalton Santos is a Longhorn, Otha Peters is a Razorback, new prospects have been offered, and every Vol fan is awaiting the decisions of four specific targets: WR Cordarrelle Patterson, DT Korren Kirven, WR Quinshad Davis, and CB Amos Leggett. First off, let me say that regardless of what happens with these four prospects, if we don’t lose anymore current commitments, this will still be a solid class that addressed a lot of needs. No, I’m not just saying that to try and stop the bleeding Vols fans are feeling after today, it’s the truth. Having said that, let’s take a look at each target and what to expect tomorrow.

I'm reading Malcolm Gladwell's book, Outliers: The Story of Success.  It's a fascinating work that studies the circumstances which help mold ultra-successful people.  There is a lot more to success than you might think.  The typical American thought process on success is that smart and talented people work harder than their peers and ultimately become successful in their field.  That's the American Dream, but it isn't that simple.  While hard work and talent are certainly critical to success in any venture, those aren't the only ingredients.  Timing, opportunity, expectations, access, and cultural factors all play a major role in success.  For instance, Gladwell writes that Bill Gates just so happened to go to one of the few middle schools in America that had a computer in the late 1960's.  Gates spent hours learning how to program and write code.  Had Gates been a youngster in any other city or at any other middle school or in any other time in history, the world might not know the basics of the PC as we have them today.  Would Bill Gates have been any less intelligent had he not had that access?  Of course not.  Would Bill Gates have been any less driven had he not been able to work on his craft at such a young age?  Of course not.  But Bill Gates is a product of excellent timing, unique access, nurturing support, and endless opportunity. 

National Signing Day 2012 will once again be a huge event.  Hundreds of websites will enjoy record traffic, and countless radio and television shows will profile the nation's top high school football talent.  It is not uncommon for recruiting junkies to take off work on the first Wednesday in February and spend the day trying to make sense of their favorite team's recruiting haul.  And I've got news for you, National Signing Day is only going to get bigger.  But what created this monster?  This relatively new phenomenon of sports lunacy had to start somewhere.  The NCAA doesn't directly benefit from high school kids choosing hats off of a table.  So what factors built National Signing Day into the huge event that it is today?

Recruiting gurus simply amaze me, including CBC's own Drew Pirtle.  Gurus, such as Drew, soak in recruiting knowledge like a heavy duty sponge. Oftentimes these guys know all the high schools by name in certain hot spot cities.  They know all the players by name, player family backgrounds, what types of offenses their high schools run, etc.  They know 40 times, top-five school lists, official visit schedules and on and on.  While I like to read the recruiting articles, I am not what you would call a recruiting junkie.  I don't live on the message boards, and I am not a recruiting "insider" by any stretch.  With that being said, I would classify myself as someone who follows "crootin" to an extent, and I am looking forward to National Signing Day next week just like all college football fans. 

It’s that time of year again. The time of year that is better than Christmas for the fanatics of the college football world. If you’re anything like myself, you have been on the message boards daily looking for even the smallest snippet of insider news on the recruiting trail. Well on the first Wednesday of February, this year February 1^st, all of the excitement and even dread, will for the most part be put to rest. It’s no secret that the coaching turnover on Rocky Top is getting old. Not only are we starved for wins, but stability as well. Mostly because those two generally go hand-in-hand. But despite the recent attrition among the staff, the Vols 2012 class has not really taken too big of a hit. Let’s take a look at how the Vols are looking on the recruiting trail, as well as what to expect on NSD.

Call me a Dool-Aid drinker, but in my opinion it's hard not to feel pretty good about the direction of the football program based on Derek Dooley's off-season hires.  Sure, there have been 6 coaches leave for other positions, but considering the Vols were 5 and 7 last year including a loss to Kentucky is that really such a bad thing?  Is the staff that lost to Kentucky and beat Vanderbilt in overtime really a staff that Tennessee fans wanted long term?  Change was needed and regardless of how that change came about Derek Dooley was given a chance to start fresh in a few key areas.  On paper he hit a homerun.

Thursday night the Tennessee Volunteers men's basketball team took the floor in Starkville, MS and came up short against one of the SEC's best squads.  The Vols lost 62-58 but had the ball down by two in the closing seconds before Trae Golden slipped and lost the ball to the Bulldogs' Dee Bost who scored and sealed the victory.  Golden led all scorers with 20 points and Kenny Hall looked good for the second consecutive game coming off the bench.  Hall had 12 points and 3 rebounds in 28 minutes.  Jeronne Maymon's foul trouble hampered the Vols' offense.  Maymon was productive when he was in the game but was sitting on the bench for much of the contest.  He had 13 points on 6 of 9 shooting and 4 rebounds in only 18 minutes.  Tennessee needs Maymon and Golden on the floor as much as possible to be an effective offensive unit.

With reports first surfacing on GoVols247.com that Sal Sunseri will fill the vacancy created by Justin Wilcox's departure to Washington, I thought it might be nice to take some time and get to know Derek Dooley's new defensive coordinator.

Here are 10 things you should know about Sal Sunseri:

This post is not aimed at 100% of Volunteer fans.  There are plenty of the Big Orange faithful who have jumped on-board and gone "all in" with Coach Cuonzo Martin, his staff, this group of players and Coach Martin's vision for the program.  This post rather is written for the two segments of Vols fans that have not taken the plunge with our hard-nosed coach from East St. Louis. 

Now that all the Tennessee fans are done puking from the Alabama BCS National Championship, let's take a look at how the guys from Checkerboard Chatter did during this season's Bowl Pick 'Em.  If you want to see all the picks you can do that here.

As you probably remember, Eric took home the regular season crown in our 2011 CBC SEC Pick 'Em contest.  The Bowl picks were close but I took home the title by the slimmest of margins over Drew.  I went 25-10 for the bowl season, 1 game better than Drew at 24-11.  Eric was 21-14 and Michael was 20-15. 

The 2011 football season is officially in the books.  Keep checking Checkerboard Chatter for more updates on the Dooley coaching staff as well as recruiting info leading up to National Signing Day.