Tennessee landed in the final Top 8 teams for class of 2025 offensive tackle Jonte Newman on Tuesday.
Newman, a four-star prospect according to 247 Sports and a three-star prospect according to On3 Sports, made his announcement on social media featuring a top eight of Tennessee, Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M, Southern Cal, Houston, and TCU.
The 6-foot-4, 275-pound offensive tackle prospect is currently ranked as the No. 22 offensive lineman in the class and the No. 56 player from the state of Texas, according to 247 Sports’ composite rankings. Newman currently plays ball for Bridgeland High School in Cypress, Texas.
Top 8! pic.twitter.com/nEcsmGwJsC
— Jonte Newman (@JonteNewman3) January 23, 2024
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Newman was the starting left tackle for Bridgeland during his junior year and helped lead his team to a 9-2 season and made it to the first round of the playoffs. According to 247, Newman was also a unanimous District 16-6A first-team selection after his impressive season.
Newman’s first-team selection in 2023 also followed up a first-team selection from 2022 as well.
While there’s still a lot of time to go and no team looks to have a significant grapple on Newman’s recruitment, it does seem as though the in-state teams are currently leading the charge. According to On3’s Recruiting Prediction Machine, Texas leads the pack at 32.6 percent followed by Texas A&M at 14.9 percent, TCU at 12.8 percent, and Oklahoma at 10.7 percent.
Tennessee’s current mark of less than one percent can always be changed, though, especially after what transpired earlier this week. The Vols landed five-star quarterback George MacIntyre from Nashville’s Brentwood Academy as a landmark piece to build the 2025 class around. MacIntyre has already been publically reaching out to fellow prospects on social media and while Newman wasn’t one that MacIntyre posted about, he’s very likely to get some sort of message now that his top eight includes Tennessee.
With the addition of MacIntyre to the class on Monday, Tennessee’s 2025 recruiting class now has six members: five-star QB George MacIntyre, four-star TE Jack VanDorselaer, three-star CB Tyler Redmond, three-star CB Shamar Arnoux, three-star RB Justin Baker, and three-star CB Dylan Lewis.
Tennessee’s class ranks ninth overall and fifth in the SEC according to 247 Sports’ latest rankings.
Check out some of the highlights from Tennessee target Jonte Newman below: