Tennessee football made the top five for four-star Nashville defensive lineman Ethan Utley on Christmas Day, Utley announced on X. The Vols joined a top group including Michigan, Oklahoma, Syracuse and Texas.
MERRY CHRISTMAS @ChadSimmons_ @adamgorney @SWiltfong247 pic.twitter.com/33yaqULeyC
— Ethan Utley (@EthanUtley1) December 25, 2023
Utley ranks as a four-star recruit in the class of 2025 and ranks as the No. 112 player and No. 11 defensive lineman in the country according to the 247sports composite rankings. A Nashville native, Utley ranks as the No. 4 player in the state of Tennessee in the 2025 recruiting cycle.
The class of 2025 is a strong one in the state of Tennessee. Utley would have ranked as the No. 2 player in the state in the 2024 cycle but comes in after three top 50 recruits in the 2025 cycle.
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“State of Tennessee is going to be huge for us in this upcoming cycle,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said last week. “It always is, but next year’s a great year inside of this (state). You can already see that with some of the guys that we’ve evaluated. We got a great reception from the high school coaches across the state in the short amount of time that we’ve been here three years. Developed really good relationships, rapport. … But, it’s a great year inside this state.”
Utley has been a frequent visitor at Tennessee during his recruitment, taking three visits to Knoxville in the last year including for the Texas A&M and Georgia games this fall. The Ensworth School standout has taken two visits to Texas and one visit to Michigan and Oklahoma over that time frame.
The 6-foot-4, 270-pound defensive lineman has yet to visit Syracuse but was just recently offered by new Orange head coach Fran Brown.
Tennessee’s 2025 recruiting class contains four commits — all three-stars from the Atlanta area — and ranks No. 12 nationally according to the 247sports team rankings.
