Tennessee has picked up a few commitments in their 2019 class over the last couple months, and they’ve continued to make progress on a large number of highly-rated players in the class as well. The Vols have made the cut for numerous top fives, eights, and tens for some of the best players in this recruiting cycle. And on Saturday, they became finalists for yet another elite player in the 2019 class.
Christian Harris is a four-star athlete out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and he tweeted out his top 10 teams moving forward in his recruitment on Saturday. And the Vols were one of those finalists.
Top 10‼ pic.twitter.com/kXqm0nmU0t
— Christian Harris (@Charris_36) April 14, 2018
The Vols’ new coaching staff offered Harris back on February 26th, and they’ve done enough in that time to be considered one of the favorites in his recruitment. They’ve managed to do that without him even coming on campus for a visit.
At one point, Harris named Alabama as his leader. But since doing that on February 25th, Harris has picked up a multitude of offers, including from Tennessee the day after he made that announcement. One of those came from in-state power LSU, and Georgia, Florida, and Florida State are other teams to have offered Harris since then.
Harris played on both sides of the ball for University Lab School this past year, and he was exceptional as both a receiver and a defensive back. Though the 6-foot-1, 225 pound athlete played primarily at cornerback on defense, Harris’ size and ball skills make him look like a better fit at safety if he plays defense in college. He could even play outside linebacker if he put on a little more weight, as he already has the frame athleticism to play that position right now. His skills as a receiver are nothing to scoff at either. He has good hands and is hard to bring down. He won’t be the fastest receiver if he stays on offense, but he’s not slow either, and he makes up for his lack of game-changing speed with his size and ability to shield himself from defenders.
According to 247Sports, Harris is rated as the No. 95 overall player and No. 6 athlete in the 2019 class. They also have him as the 7th-best player in the talent-rich state of Louisiana. The 247Sports Composite rankings have him rated a bit lower, though they still have him as a four-star. Those rankings have Harris listed as the No. 208 overall player, No. 16 athlete, and No. 10 player from the state.
The Vols will need players with the type of athleticism and pure play-making ability that Harris possesses moving forward if they want to compete with the likes of Alabama and Georgia in the SEC. It still appears as though Alabama is the team to beat for Harris, but don’t count out LSU now that they’ve offered him as well. Tennessee will have to pull out all the stops to get Harris in this class.
