Tennessee landed one of its biggest pieces in the 2018 recruiting class on Friday evening, adding a top-tier quarterback who will have a chance to be the Vols’ signal caller of the future.
Adrian Martinez of Fresno, Calif., ranked as the No. 7 dual-threat quarterback in the nation by the 247Sports composite, committed to the Vols via Twitter. He called the chance to be the quarterback at Tennessee “the opportunity of a lifetime.”
https://twitter.com/MartinezTheQB/status/863148922021138432
Martinez chose the Vols after leaving the Orange and White Game in April blown away by his experience. Tennessee held off a late offer and push from Oklahoma for the 6-foot-2, 200-pound quarterback to land a player that will give Tennessee much-needed future depth at an uncertain QB position and a very solid potential starting option in the coming years.
Tennessee is down to three scholarship quarterbacks – Quinten Dormady, Jarrett Guarantano and Will McBride – after the offseason transfer of Sheriron Jones. Dormady and Guarantano are competing for the starting job in 2017, and with both clearly having starting capabilities, the possibility of a transfer always looms.
That put Tennessee in position to add at least a couple quarterbacks in the 2018 class, and the Vols now have them in Martinez and three-star quarterback Mike Penix Jr. from Tampa, Fla., in the fold.
While both have upside, Martinez’s skill earned him a consensus four-star ranking and the designation as a top-200 recruit nationally, according to multiple evaluation sites. He showed great touch, good arm strength and great athleticism during a junior campaign for Clovis West High School that yielded 41 total touchdowns. It also helped him pile up an impressive offer list that, on top of UT and OU, included Oregon, California, Georgia, Alabama, Louisville, Miami and over a dozen other programs.
Martinez is the 10th commitment in a class that now ranks eighth nationally and second in the SEC, according to 247Sports.
