One of Tennessee’s more recent visitors is ready to narrow down his recruitment, and he’s including the Vols in his list of finalists.
Eric Shaw, a four-star athlete who plays for Reeltown High School in Notasulga, Alabama, has visited several camps and campuses over the last few weeks, and he’s seen enough to name his top teams in his recruitment. On Wednesday, Shaw put out a list of seven finalists, and all seven are SEC schools. Tennessee made the cut along with Auburn, Florida, LSU, Texas A&M, South Carolina, and Kentucky.
Top 7‼️ *no specific order* pic.twitter.com/6yELANAz7h
— E. S H A W ⁶ (@treyshaw_3) June 19, 2019
According to the regular 247Sports rankings, Shaw is the No. 302 overall prospect, No. 17 athlete, and No. 14 player in the state of Alabama in the 2020 class. He’s just outside four-star range in the composite rankings, coming in at No. 385 overall.
Shaw picked up an offer from Tennessee back on May 8th, and the Vols were one of many teams to offer him in a four month span. He picked up 16 Power Five offers from the last week of January through the second week of May.
So far this summer, Shaw has visited Auburn, LSU, Texas A&M, Florida, and Tennessee unofficially. He took an official visit to South Carolina last weekend.
At 6-foot-4, 210 pounds, Shaw already has really good size and has the ideal frame for the next level. He plays wide receiver, H-back, and linebacker for Reeltown, and he was on his way to a memorable season in 2018 before he tore his ACL just six games into his junior campaign.
The film of Shaw before his injury is very impressive.
Shaw looks like an adult playing among children on his film at times, but he looks good even against the better competition as well. He’s a good route runner on offense, and he has some soft hands. He had elite athleticism before his injury, so it’ll be interesting to see how he bounces back from his unfortunate setback. He’s a very physical player who hits hard on defense and looks impossible to tackle on offense.
In just six games before his torn ACL, Shaw totaled 60 tackles, seven tackles for loss, one sack, one forced fumble, and one fumble recovery on defense. On offense, Shaw had 11 carries for 248 yards and three touchdowns and caught six passes for 222 yards and two touchdowns. He was also named to the second-team offense of the Opelika-Auburn News All-Area Offensive Team for smaller schools in the area despite missing time with the torn ACL. He also plays basketball for Reeltown.
Tennessee already got Shaw to come camp, and it appears that the Vols gave Shaw enough indication that they liked him for him to include them among his finalists. The intriguing athlete has already taken one official visit, so it’ll be interesting to see if he plans an official visit to Knoxville in the near future.
