Darris Sawtelle hasn't played a game in months. He hasn't even gone through a drill in public this year.

Yet, somehow Scout.com downgraded him from a five-star prospect to a four-star prospect last week. Sawtelle also dropped out of scout.com's Top 100 and fell to the nation's 17th best offensive lineman. He was in the top 10.

Did Scout.com notice a flaw on his highlight tape they hadn't seen before? Did talent evaluators sneak into the weight room to watch him work out? Was it a sign from a higher power?

Beats me.

Sawtelle, however, doesn't seem too worried.

"A lot of that is media attention," the 6-foot-5, 285-pound offensive lineman from Brother Rice High School in Birmingham, Mich., said.

Therein lies the problem. Sawtelle, who committed to Tennessee in April, is anything but a media darling in the recruiting world. Don't get me wrong. He's a fantastic interview and seems like a fine young man.

However, he just doesn't have that sizzle. He isn't changing his tune more than a jazz musician.

"If I had waited and drawn it out right until Signing Day, I'm sure I'd be up there," said Sawtelle, who chose not to participate in any football camps this spring. "Since I committed to Tennessee, I lost some of the PR attention."

Surely an early commitment doesn't hurt a prospect's national stature, does it? I know that revenue from national recruiting services is built on membership and page views but I can't imagine them allowing money to determine something as unbelievably sacred as a star system.

"You've got to make it interesting," Sawtelle said. "Why look back (at the Web site)?"

Sawtelle thinks the negative backlash to his commitment began when rivals.com released its list of the nations' top 100 players. He wasn't on it. Then, scout.com responded.

"Not to be cocky, but I think I'm a top-100 player," said Sawtelle, who plans to enroll at UT in January. "If you're really going to judge a player, just look at the tape."

UT, Michigan, Michigan State and Arizona State, among others, looked at Sawtelle's tape and offered him a scholarship extremely early in the recruiting process. Southern Cal also showed strong interest.

Recruiting fans weren't the only ones scratching their heads this past week. At least three reporters called Sawtelle to inquire about the demotion. Two were from national recruiting services.

Jeffrey Stewart of scout.com seems to think that Michigan is part of the Sawtelle sell-off.

"Any negative opinion from a school no longer in the running for Sawtelle's services would have to be considered suspect," Stewart wrote last week about the issue. "After all, the if-you-can't-sign-'em-slam-'em strategy is as old as $100 handshakes, especially when colleges lose a high-profile in-state prospect."

Representatives from scout.com's national recruiting coverage couldn't be reached for comment. But even if they did get a tip (or bashing) from Michigan's coaches, shouldn't scout.com take sour grapes into account?

In the interest of full disclosure, the News Sentinel has a Web site that I hope you're already familiar with. Govolsxtra.com was developed, in part, to offer more in-depth recruiting coverage.

Here's the difference. Frankly, I don't care if Joe Blow is a five-star player or a no-star player. I don't care who the top 100 players in the nation are. We cover prospects interested in UT. Period.

UT coach Phillip Fulmer can't comment on Sawtelle, as per NCAA rules, but he's well aware of the challenges that recruiting services face.

"Personally, I don't pay much attention to them at all," Fulmer said. "It's a very difficult situation for a person on one coast to know what's going on the other."

The frustrating thing for Sawtelle is that he's still at the mercy of recruiting services. He's dreamed of being a U.S. Army All-American since he was in fifth grade.

The participants in that event are selected by - you guessed it - scout.com.

"In the end, all I care about is being a U.S. Army All-American," Sawtelle said when asked about his high school goals.

Sawtelle said the recent snubs, and any others that may come along, will only motivate him to be the best college player he can be. Still, he's steering clear of recruiting Web sites.

"They can kind of get into your head too much," he said. "I want to have a good high school season. I'm trying to get as big, as fast and as technically sound for Tennessee."

It's too bad that integrity doesn't count for a star or two. Maybe Sawtelle could be a six-star player.

Dave Hooker covers recruiting. He can be reached at hookerd@knews.com.