When Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt hired Tee Martin, he expected the former Vol quarterback to not only be a big benefit on the field as a coach, but he also expected Martin to pay big dividends on the recruiting trail. Though Martin hasn’t been credited with a big-time commitment in the Vols’ 2020 class as of yet, he’s a big reason why Tennessee is in on several highly-rated receivers this cycle.
One of Tennessee’s biggest targets in the 2020 class is a big fan of Martin, and he also likes the Vols’ 2020 quarterback commit, Harrison Bailey.
Rakim Jarrett is a five-star wide receiver who plays for St. John’s College High School in the Washington D.C. area. He’s already visited the Vols a few different times, and Tennessee is one of his top teams.
In an interview with Adam Friedman of Rivals.com, Jarrett was asked to update his recruitment as it stands right now. According to the five-star receiver, Tennessee, LSU, Clemson, and Ohio State are the four schools standing out to him most at the moment. The Vols stand out to Jarrett because Tee Martin has built a strong relationship with him.
“Coach Tee Martin is probably one of the most down to earth guys that’s recruiting me so far,” Jarrett told Friedman. “That’s one major thing. His development he had of players back at USC, and they have four senior receivers leaving, so that’s a big plus also.”
Jauan Jennings, Marquez Callaway, Brandon Johnson, and Tyler Byrd will all be graduating from UT after this upcoming football season. Jarrett sees a chance for immediate playing time because of all those departures, and that’s yet another major appeal to him.
That’s not all, though. Jarrett also has a great relationship with the Vols’ highly-rated quarterback commit in the 2020 class.
Harrison Bailey is a four-star pro-style quarterback who committed to Tennessee back in late November of 2018. Since then, he’s been a strong peer recruiter for the Vols in the 2020 cycle, and that’s been especially true with Jarrett.
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“Harrison, he probably texts me every day about Tennessee,” Jarrett stated. “He’s a real cool guy. We played each other last year, and he talked about me coming to school with him. He’s a real cool guy.”
Jarrett is rated as the No. 16 overall prospect and No. 2 wide receiver in the 2020 class as of now. The five-star has gotten tons of interest from some of the top schools in college football, but Tennessee, LSU, Ohio State, and Clemson seem to be the four schools he’s focusing on the most.
According to Jarrett, his communication with Ohio State has fallen off some recently, but he plans to visit them at some point. He noted that the big appeal for Clemson is that they always have “a very deadly” group of receivers and that Clemson wide receiver Amari Rodgers — who is actually Tee Martin’s son — has been in contact with him a lot about the Tigers.
Right now, it looks like the Vols’ biggest competition for Jarrett could be fellow SEC team LSU.
Jarrett noted that he likes that the Tigers let their players have fun and “lets them play freely,” which he says fits his personality well. LSU and Tennessee are also the only two schools he has official visits planned for at this time as well.
LSU will get an official visit from Jarrett in two weeks, then he says he’ll take his official visit to Tennessee after that. But no other official visits have been planned as of yet.
As for a timeframe on his decision, Jarrett isn’t sure right now when he wants to announce a commitment. He says that will depend on how his visits go.
The Vols are in a very good spot with Jarrett, and his official visit will mark at least the third time he’s been on campus this year. Jarrett visited during the first week of UT’s spring practices in March and came back again three weeks later.
Tennessee will have stiff competition to bring in Rakim Jarrett, but both Tee Martin and quarterback commit Harrison Bailey have helped put the Vols in a great spot already. Time will tell if they can close the deal on one of the top receivers this recruiting cycle.
