Tennessee was able to cap off their first day of the early signing period with a bang, getting a signature from one of the best defensive ends in the junior college ranks.
Jordan Allen, a high three-star JUCO defensive end, signed with the Vols late Wednesday night. He chose Tennessee over offers from TCU, Michigan State, Arizona State, Nebraska, and others. He was rated as the No. 2 weakside defensive end in junior college according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. He’s also the No. 25 overall JUCO player in the country according to those rankings.
Jeremy Pruitt and his staff didn’t even offer Allen until December 13th, and Allen visited the Vols just a couple days after. He was one of the many recruits who visited the Vols this past weekend. And he came away impressed.
Allen was committed to TCU earlier this season, but his commitment didn’t even last a week and he decommitted from the Horned Frogs in early November. He picked up interest from several schools after that, including Colorado, Utah, Nebraska, and Michigan State.
Allen played at City College of San Francisco this past season. The 6-foot-4, 230 pound end has the frame to add some weight if he’s going to stay at end, but he showed the ability to be a productive pass rusher and disrupter at the junior college level this season. He could project to be an outside linebacker in Jeremy Pruitt’s 3-4 defensive scheme he likely plans to implement at Tennessee.
With Allen’s signature, the Vols finished Wednesday with 12 signees in their 2018 class, and five of them are players that Pruitt and his staff gained commitments/signatures from.
The newest prospects to join the Vols today aside from Allen were four-star offensive tackle Jerome Carvin, four-star JUCO tight end Dominick Wood-Anderson, three-star running back Jeremy Banks, and three-star quarterback J.T. Shrout.
