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Instead of gearing up to follow what most Tennessee fans hoped would be a frantic and satisfying close to recruiting season, Vol fans were thrown into a state of shock Tuesday night with the news that Lane Kiffin was exiting Knoxville after one year on the job to take over the USC program.

Kiffin's desire to return to Los Angeles were he was a part of Pete Carroll's staff that built the Trojans into a dominant force in college football over the last decade was hardly surprising. However the timing of his departure from Knoxville could hardly be worse.

With National Signing Day just over three weeks away, the effects of Kiffin's departure are expected to be potentially disastrous for a Tennessee recruiting class that currently consists of 22 verbal commitments and ranks No. 6 nationally.

Additionally, the Vols had 10 members of that signing class move onto campus this week ready to begin classes on Wednesday as early enrollees.

Early efforts on our part to get contact commitments and early enrollees suggest that holding on to any significant chunk of the class is going to be an uphill struggle for the new head coach.

As long as they have not attended classes, the early enrollees can leave with no penalty. That does not appear to be the case for the three players - Tyler Bray, Matt Milton and Channing Fugate--who came to Knoxville during Christmas break and took part in bowl practice.

Several members of the UT administration and at least two players confirmed that they heard coach Ed Orgeron, who is headed to USC with Kiffin, making calls to several of these players as well as recruits, offering them scholarship slots at USC while Kiffin was telling the team of his decision to leave.

Three weeks to recover

The Vols' class had just gotten a large boost this weekend when Brandon Willis, one of those early enrollees--switched his commitment back to Tennessee during an announcement at the Army All-American Bowl. Tennessee also got a commitment from Texas defensive back Ahmad Dixon last week in San Antonio.

Holding on to either of those new commitments looks doubtful in light of tonight's developments.

In fact, holding onto any of the 22 commitments is a highly speculative proposition given that there is no kind of clear indication of what the yet-to-be assembled Tennessee staff may look like.

Kiffin is taking recruiting coordinator Ed Orgeron to USC along with his father and defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin to Los Angeles.

The loss of Orgeron in particular will be a blow on the recruiting trail, but the elder Kiffin's ability to relate prospects, and attract them with his NFL reputation has been a tangible benefit of his hire as well.

"From a timing standpoint, it couldn't be any worse. While most schools are putting the final touches on their classes, it's almost back to square one for Tennessee," Rivals.com national recruiting analyst Jeremy Crabtree said on Monday night.

"The Vols were in line for what was going to be one of the nation's best classes, but now everybody is left with more questions than answers. The longer that something drags out on Tennessee's end the more damage will be done, but I'm afraid there will be too much to repair in the short amount of time left."

That concern, repairing the damage done to this current recruiting class, is just one of the holes that Mike Hamilton has to look to fill in a hurry.

There's also the unavoidable damage done to the program from two complete coaching transformations in just over one calendar year. Any kind of continuity Tennessee had begun to build under Kiffin has just been jettisoned and will have to be built again from the ground up.

The first effects we'll see from Kiffin's move will be from high school prospects in the coming weeks, but ripple effects from his abrupt departure will be felt for much longer than that.