One of the top interior linemen in the 2021 recruiting cycle has narrowed down his focus to 10 schools, and Tennessee is one of them.
Rocco Spindler is a four-star offensive and defensive lineman who plays for Clarkston High School in Clarkston, Michigan. On Monday, he tweeted out his list of top 10 schools, and the Vols were included along with Alabama, LSU, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Florida, Penn State, Michigan, Notre Dame, and Arizona State.
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Top 10?
Edit:@Hayesfawcett3 pic.twitter.com/T4Mcrl3uDB
— Rocco Spindler (@RoccoSpindler92) March 2, 2020
According to the 247Sports Composite rankings, Spindler is the No. 49 overall prospect and No. 2 offensive guard in the 2021 cycle. Only Ohio State commit Donovan Jackson is rated higher among offensive guards.
The 6-foot-4, 295-pound lineman holds offers from nearly 20 different schools, but those 10 will be the ones he’s focusing on the most moving forward in his recruitment.
Spindler’s father, Marc Spindler, was a standout defensive lineman in the 1980s and 90s. The elder Spindler was named the 1986 USA Today High School Defensive Player of the Year and earned Freshman All-American honors at Pitt. He was selected in the third round of the 1990 NFL Draft by the Detroit Lions and played in the NFL for nine seasons.
Pulling Spindler away from teams in the Big Ten won’t be easy, but the Vols have to like their chances with how well UT’s interior of the offensive line performed last season and the fact that Tennessee will have starting jobs open at guard and center for the 2021 season.
On offense, Spindler has the perfect frame for an offensive lineman, and he plays aggressively and with great hand placement. He pushes defenders where he wants them to go, and he’s not just a road grader in the run game; Spindler has good instincts in pass blocking as well. Defensively, Spindler has a great motor and keeps that same aggression he has on offense. I think his ceiling is higher on offense, but that’s not knocking his defensive ability; Spindler is good on both sides of the ball.
Tennessee offered Spindler back on December 16th of 2019, and the Vols are one of his more recent offers, joining West Virginia and Oklahoma as teams to offer him after his junior season ended.
The Vols do not have any offensive linemen committed to them in their 2021 class currently. Tennessee did sign three projected interior linemen in their 2020 class, getting signatures from four-star Cooper Mays, three-star Javontez Spraggins, and three-star James Robinson.
One Response
We NEED OT’s in this class badly! We’re not getting Mims or any of the other top 5-10 OT’s in the country. I hope we can find at least a couple top OT’s or we’ll be hurting bad as an offensive line after this next season & especially the following season. We can’t afford to miss on CB, OT, OLB, ILB, DL, & we better find another QB too.