Tennessee football suffered its first signing day defection mid morning on Wednesday when three-star defensive lineman Darrion Smith flipped his commitment from Tennessee to Auburn.
Smith committed to Tennessee on the final day of July but kept his recruitment open throughout the fall where he took multiple visits to Auburn including an official visit two weeks ago for the Tigers win over Texas A&M. The Maryland native did return for one fall visit to Tennessee but has been trending towards the Tigers for a while and his flip is of little surprise.
The 6-foot-2, 265-pound defensive lineman ranks as a three-star recruit and the No. 601 player in the country according to the 247sports composite rankings. Smith also ranks as the No. 17 player in Maryland and the No. 67 defensive lineman in the 2025 recruiting cycle.
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With Smith no longer committed, Tennessee football’s signing class contains four defensive linemen including four-stars Mariyon Dye, Ethan Utley and Jayden Loftin as well as three-star Charles House. The Vols are optimistic that they’ll land another four-star this afternoon when top 50 recruit Isaiah Campbell announces his college decision.
Smith flipping to Auburn is the first piece of drama in what’s expected to be a dramatic signing day for the Vols. Tennessee is in danger of losing four-star cornerback Onis Konanbanny to Florida and is working on fliping four-star linebacker Jadon Perlotte from USC and three-star defensive back Timothy Merritt from Miami.
The Vols are also still holding their breath as their top commit David Sanders has not officially signed at the time of this publication. The five-star offensive tackle is a top five recruit and visit Ohio State two weekends ago.
With Smith de-committing, Tennessee football’s recruiting class now contains 23 commitments but the de-commitment did not affect its rankings. Things change quickly on signing day but at the time of publication, Tennessee football’s recruiting class ranks No. 10 nationally and No. 7 in the SEC according to the 247sports team rankings.
