Tennessee already appears to be trending for one four-star defender out of the state of Maryland in the 2021 class. Now, the Vols also look to be the frontrunners for his teammate.
Four-star outside linebacker Aaron Willis posted that he will be announcing his commitment on Sunday, May 10th, and a flood of crystal ball predictions in favor of Tennessee came in for Willis. His teammate at St. Frances Academy in Baltimore, four-star defensive tackle Katron Evans, is also trending towards Tennessee.
Starting on Friday and going through Monday afternoon, seven different recruiting analysts logged crystal ball predictions for Evans to end up with the Vols. Evans has not announced a commitment date publicly at this time, but it’s clear that UT appears to have the momentum behind the scenes.
Chief among those who put in crystal ball predictions for Evans are Steve Wiltfong, the Director of Football Recruiting for 247Sports, and Brian Dohn, a prominent national recruiting analyst for 247Sports. Evan G. Watkins of the Virginia Tech 247Sports site got the predictions going with his pick of UT on Friday. Watkins is a perfect 15-of-15 on his crystal ball projections in the 2021 class so far. Wiltfong and Dohn have combined to just miss on one crystal ball prediction out of 211 total combined predictions in the 2021 class thus far.
The 6-foot-4, 320-pound lineman is rated as the No. 179 overall prospect, No. 9 defensive tackle, and No. 8 recruit in the state of Maryland per the 247Sports Composite rankings. Both he and Willis play at the same school current Vol defensive lineman and former four-star 2020 prospect Dominic Bailey attended.
A month ago, Evans included Tennessee among his list of top eight schools along with Alabama, Georgia, Auburn, Florida, USC, TCU, and Arizona State.
Evans is the ideal size to play defensive line in the SEC, and he’s great at the point of attack. He has long arms and is very disruptive. Evans is capable of absorbing multiple offensive linemen and looks like he can be an effective nose guard in college.
The state of Maryland has been a huge focus for the Vols in the 2021 class. Along with Evans and Willis at St. Frances, Tennessee is also targeting four-star wide receiver Dont’e Thornton, four-star inside linebacker Greg Penn III, four-star outside linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson, and four-star defensive end and Maryland commit Demeioun Robinson among others.
Tennessee currently has 18 prospects committed to them in the 2021 cycle. Of those 18 prospects, only one of them is a projected defensive tackle right now, and that’s three-star North Carolina DT Isaac Washington.
