Last week, we updated you on how the Vols were trending with some of their top targets before the early signing period. We now return to those crystal ball predictions and see how Tennessee is trending with other players after Christmas.
For those unfamiliar, 247Sports has a feature on their site where recruiting analysts and football writers across the country can attempt to predict where high school recruits will end up for college. That feature is called their “crystal ball” predictions.
And Tennessee is in a good spot with some of their top remaining targets in the 2018 class.
Tennessee has picked up several crystal ball predictions for a handful of the recruits they’re targeting for the remainder of the 2018 recruiting cycle.
Coynis Miller, a four-star defensive tackle, picked up a crystal ball to the Vols on the day after Christmas by Chris Smith of Vandy247. Miller is currently committed to Auburn, but the Vols have been pursuing him ever since Jeremy Pruitt took over as head coach. Pruitt extended a scholarship offer to Miller the very first day he was on the job at Tennessee.
Miller measures in at 6-foot-1, 300 pounds and would be a perfect fit as a nose tackle in Pruitt’s 3-4 defensive scheme he eventually wants to run at Tennessee.
Though he’s been committed to Auburn since October, Smith believes he will flip from the Tigers to the Vols now that there’s a new head coach at the helm.
Tennessee also picked up a crystal ball for three-star cornerback Eddie Smith out of Louisiana. Smith is rated as the No. 66 corner in the 2018 class according to the 247Sports Composite rankings, and he was committed to TCU until he reopened his recruitment on December 17th. He’s since picked up an offer from Arkansas, and he’s received a crystal ball to commit to Tennessee.
Ryan Callahan, the recruiting editor for the Vols’ 247Sports site, believes Smith will end up a Vol. Callahan has been accurate on his last four crystal ball predictions he’s made for Tennessee. He correctly pegged Jahmir Johnson, Jordan Allen, Jeremy Banks, and J.T. Shrout to all sign with the Vols during the early signing period.
In our crystal ball piece last week, we saw that Benjamin Wolk of SEC Country predicted that one of the top linebackers in the 2018 class, J.J. Peterson, would commit to the Vols. Peterson has since picked up another crystal ball to Tennessee.
Demetric Warren, the director of scouting and recruiting for Varsity Preps, also thinks that Peterson, a four-star outside linebacker, will end up at Tennessee. Warren correctly picked Jahmir Johnson, Jerome Carvin, and J.T. Shrout to sign with the Vols as well, and he’s been accurate on 74.9 percent of his 470 predictions in 2018.
Peterson is the No. 2 outside linebacker in the 2018 class and 44th overall player in the class according to the 247Sports Composite rankings.
Tennessee has also picked up a crystal ball for running back C’Bo Flemister, a three-star back who is currently committed to Georgia Tech.
Last week we wrote about Flemister and the fact that Tennessee’s interest in him kept him from signing with the Yellow Jackets during the early signing period. And apparently that interview was enough for Demetric Warren, the same person who gave a crystal ball prediction to the Vols for J.J. Peterson, to predict Flemister to come to the Vols.
Flemister was the only Georgia Tech commit to not sign with the Yellow Jackets during the early signing period, and it appears the Vols are attempting to sway him to flip to them. Flemister is only a three-star back who is rated as the No. 117 running back in the 2018 class, but he ran for 2,463 yards and 35 touchdowns on 332 carries as a senior this season for Pike County in Zebulon, Georgia.
Tennessee signed 14 players in their early signing period class and should have room for 10 or 11 more recruits in their class. And it appears they’re moving in the right direction for a handful of the players they’re looking to add over the next month and a half.
