One of the top wide receivers in the 2020 recruiting cycle is set to come to Knoxville very soon.
Rakim Jarrett is a five-star wide receiver who plays for St. John’s College High School in the Washington D.C. area. He recently included the Vols among his top six teams in his recruitment, and he tweeted out on Wednesday that he plans on visiting Tennessee on March 7th, the first day of spring practices for the Vols.
UT on March 7th?
— Rak (@RakimJarrett) February 20, 2019
According to the 247Sports Composite rankings, Jarrett is the No. 23 overall player and No. 3 wide receiver in the 2020 class. The 6-foot, 182-pound receiver holds offers from several of the top programs in college football, but he recently narrowed down his list of top schools to just six. That list included the Vols along with Alabama, Ohio State, USC, LSU, and Florida.
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Jarrett has already taken a few unofficial visits since the beginning of 2019. He got an offer from Georgia on January 9th then unofficially visited them last weekend. Before that trip, he took a visit to Clemson in late January. He also visited Ohio State late in November of 2018.
So far, Jarrett hasn’t taken a visit to Knoxville yet. But that will change in just a couple weeks.
When looking at his film, it’s very easy to see why Jarrett is so highly rated. He has elite speed and athleticism, and he can make defenders who even take correct routes to try and chase him down look silly and slow because of his quickness. He has good hands and awareness, and he shows a good amount of toughness despite not being the biggest receiver. He’ll need to work on running crisper routes in the future, but the intangibles and talent are clearly there. You can’t teach natural speed and instincts, and he has both of those.
As a junior, Jarrett caught 36 passes for 782 yards and 11 touchdowns. He had a 21.8 yard per catch average in his junior season for St. John’s.
Tennessee offered Jarrett back in May of 2018, and he’ll finally make his first trip over to Knoxville nearly a year after that offer. Right now, it seems like Ohio State has a lot of momentum in his recruitment, but it’s still pretty early in this cycle.
The Vols are pursuing several receivers in the 2020 cycle, and new wide receivers coach Tee Martin has opened up a lot of different avenues for Tennessee there. It’s likely that Martin is the key recruiter for Jarrett, and expect the Vols to make a good impression on Jarrett for his first visit to Knoxville.
