Tennessee has been in the thick of five-star receiver Carnell Tate’s recruitment for some time and the IMG Academy product is nearing a decision, according to a report from Sports Illustrated’s John Garcia Jr.
According to the report, Tate has taken all the visits he plans on taking and is eyeing a college decision sometime this summer. The Chicago native is down to four schools: Ohio State, Notre Dame, LSU and Tennessee.
The Buckeyes and Fighting Irish have long been near the top of the midwest native’s list, but LSU has seen a recent surge into Tate’s final group. Brian Kelly and LSU got Tate to Baton Rouge for a visit last month and after not making the receiver’s original top five, find themselves in his final four.
Georgia and Alabama are the two schools that were in Tate’s top five that didn’t make his final four.
Tate’s plan not to take any more visits before making his college decision could bode well for Josh Heupel and his staff. The Vols have hosted Tate on more visits this year than any other program, hosting the five-star receiver in January, March and then again earlier this month.
Tate ranks as a consensus top 50 recruit as a fringe four/five-star. The 6-foot-2 receiver ranks as the No. 16 player and No. 3 receiver in the country according to the On3 consensus rankings.
While Tate indicated that he plans to make his college commitment soon, the receiver didn’t indicate an exact date or month.
With a commitment to Tennessee, Tate would become the second highest rated commit in the Vols top 10 recruiting class behind just Nico Iamaleava. Iamaleava — a five-star quarterback — has been recruiting Tate hard ever since his own commitment.
