Let's start with the big mover and shaker that's pulling the trigger tomorrow afternoon in Jackson. Trey Smith has been the topic of recruiting circles since his sophomore year and at 3:30 (central time) tomorrow, he'll choose between Alabama, Ohio State and Tennessee.
After his official visit to Tennessee over the weekend, Smith returned home last night and prepared for the final push that included a full slate of visitors today. Nick Saban arrived at University School of Jackson right about ten o'clock this morning. While he was running a little bit behind schedule, it was Urban Meyer rolling in early as the two overlapped each other with the Ohio State head boss arriving around 20 minutes after Saban did. That put Meyer and an OSU assistant waiting in an office for over an hour. Meyer would get his time with Smith and would depart in the early afternoon hours.
It would be Tennessee that would get the final chat with Smith as Mike Debord, Don Mahoney and Tommy Thigpen went to work. The Smith family didn't want to host coaches in their home and that's why all of the visits took place at the high school. Now when did Tennessee roll out of Jackson? That remains unclear.
Tennessee has done everything they can and appears to be in good shape going into the final hours before Smith makes his college selection.
While Smith was on the mind of Tennessee head coach Butch Jones for most of the weekend, he was in South Florida on Monday spending time with early enrollees Shanon Reid and Deandre Johnson.
Reid had told several that he would likely choose LSU on Wednesday if there was room for the linebacker. But, we're hearing it's not that cut and dry. We think there may be room for Reid at LSU, but Tennessee may still have some momentum despite that.
Butch Jones met with him twice during the day, once and at school and one at the house and the added attention meant a great deal to Reid while LSU was still unsure of its numbers. As of this time Tuesday night, we think things are looking very positive for the Vols on the Reid front.
LSU could still do an in-home visit on Tuesday, but at this point we're not sure that it will happen.
Some have asked about some defensive line targets and one we're hearing about Monday is California defensive lineman Gabe Cherry. Cherry has a few ties to the South and could be a potential official visitor in January.
As we noted earlier on the board, Butch Jones was with Cam Akers on Sunday. What's really interesting is there was some thought Akers would wait until signing day to make a decision, but right now we think it's still likely he's an early enrollee.
What's the feeling? Several people think this could come down to Tennessee and Ohio State. Akers' family has gone pretty quiet so it's hard to get anything concrete out of him right now. But, we believe Tennessee remains firmly in the mix here. We're not at all ruling out FSU, LSU or even Ole Miss, but for those claiming that's the final three, we believe that's inaccurate.
What we don't know is Akers' plan and when his final decision will come.
They key continues to be Robert Gillespie.
After his official visit to Tennessee over the weekend, Smith returned home last night and prepared for the final push that included a full slate of visitors today. Nick Saban arrived at University School of Jackson right about ten o'clock this morning. While he was running a little bit behind schedule, it was Urban Meyer rolling in early as the two overlapped each other with the Ohio State head boss arriving around 20 minutes after Saban did. That put Meyer and an OSU assistant waiting in an office for over an hour. Meyer would get his time with Smith and would depart in the early afternoon hours.
It would be Tennessee that would get the final chat with Smith as Mike Debord, Don Mahoney and Tommy Thigpen went to work. The Smith family didn't want to host coaches in their home and that's why all of the visits took place at the high school. Now when did Tennessee roll out of Jackson? That remains unclear.
Tennessee has done everything they can and appears to be in good shape going into the final hours before Smith makes his college selection.
While Smith was on the mind of Tennessee head coach Butch Jones for most of the weekend, he was in South Florida on Monday spending time with early enrollees Shanon Reid and Deandre Johnson.
Reid had told several that he would likely choose LSU on Wednesday if there was room for the linebacker. But, we're hearing it's not that cut and dry. We think there may be room for Reid at LSU, but Tennessee may still have some momentum despite that.
Butch Jones met with him twice during the day, once and at school and one at the house and the added attention meant a great deal to Reid while LSU was still unsure of its numbers. As of this time Tuesday night, we think things are looking very positive for the Vols on the Reid front.
LSU could still do an in-home visit on Tuesday, but at this point we're not sure that it will happen.
Some have asked about some defensive line targets and one we're hearing about Monday is California defensive lineman Gabe Cherry. Cherry has a few ties to the South and could be a potential official visitor in January.
As we noted earlier on the board, Butch Jones was with Cam Akers on Sunday. What's really interesting is there was some thought Akers would wait until signing day to make a decision, but right now we think it's still likely he's an early enrollee.
What's the feeling? Several people think this could come down to Tennessee and Ohio State. Akers' family has gone pretty quiet so it's hard to get anything concrete out of him right now. But, we believe Tennessee remains firmly in the mix here. We're not at all ruling out FSU, LSU or even Ole Miss, but for those claiming that's the final three, we believe that's inaccurate.
What we don't know is Akers' plan and when his final decision will come.
They key continues to be Robert Gillespie.
