Tennessee’s coaches continue to evaluate targets late in the 2019 recruiting cycle as they gear up for their final push before the early signing period and get ready for National Signing Day in February too. This week, UT’s coaches extended an offer to a linebacker out of Florida who is getting a ton of attention after a great senior year.
Octavius Brothers (who goes by “OC”) picked up an offer from the Vols on Monday of this week. Brothers plays for Rockledge High School in Southwest Brevard County in Florida. The Vols also offered his teammate, four-star athlete Ladarius Tennison, in the 2020 class.
Absolutely Blessed To Receive An Offer From The University Of Tennessee ? #GoVols @UTCharlesKelly @CoachYounger14 @coachkd15 @almighty__Tenn5 pic.twitter.com/6Di2oFEhT5
— Oc Brothers II (@Blvd_4) December 10, 2018
Tennessee is just the latest Power Five program to start showing more interest in Brothers. North Carolina has been recruiting him for a while, but Auburn, Miami, and NC State have all shown more interest in him lately as well. And though he’s rated as a very low three-star (No. 1,834 overall) by the 247Sports Composite rankings, it’s evident that bigger programs like what they see from him.
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At one point, Brothers was committed to UCF, but he announced his decommitment from the Golden Knights in October of this year. And ever since then, he’s picked up a lot of interest from Power Five schools.
Brothers measures in at 6-foot-2, 210 pounds and played a multitude of positions for Rockledge his past season. He projects more as a linebacker and played the most there, but he also played at wide receiver, quarterback, and defensive back. He even punted the ball for Rockledge.
The athletic linebacker has been timed running a 4.5-second 40-yard dash and has a 32-inch vertical. He was also a 1st-Team All-Cape Cod Coast Conference selection for his senior year.
Looking at Brothers’ senior film, what immediately stands out is his speed. For a linebacker, he’s incredibly fast, and it’s easy to see why he was used in such a variety of ways both on offense and defense for Rockledge. Not only is he fast, but he has great instincts and is every effective in pass coverage. He has a knack for making plays and always seems to be in the right place at the right time. He needs to add some more weight and will have to figure out which position he’ll play primarily in college, but he’s extremely athletic and has a strong football IQ.
As a senior, Brothers totaled 99 tackles, six tackles for loss, a sack, five interceptions, 13 passes defended, a forced fumble, two fumble recoveries, and an interception returned for a touchdown according to MaxPreps. On offense, Brothers completed eight of his 17 pass attempts for 92 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception while also catching 17 passes for 335 yards and two scores.
Brothers plans on signing in February rather than the early signing period, and Tennessee will try to get him to visit their campus in the coming months. He’s already taken official visits to Syracuse and North Carolina this year.
Right now, Tennessee only has one true linebacker committed to them in their 2019 class. Four-star JUCO inside linebacker Lakia Henry is UT’s only true linebacker commit right now, though they do have two defensive ends committed to them who could play linebacker in their 3-4 defensive scheme. Those defensive ends are three-star Roman Harrison and three-star Jalil Clemons.
