For those unfamiliar, 247Sport has a feature on their site where recruiting analysts and football writers across the country can attempt to predict where high school recruits will end up for college. That feature is called their “crystal ball” predictions.
And Tennessee is trending in the right direction in those predictions for several of their top targets in the 2018 recruiting class.
Tennessee has picked up crystal ball predictions over the last week for several of their top remaining targets in the 2018 class. And one of those recruits is one of the best players at his position in the country.
Benjamin Wolk of SEC Country put in a prediction for Tennessee to land a commitment from J.J. Peterson on Monday. Peterson is a four-star outside linebacker from Georgia who is rated as the No, 43 overall player in the country and the No. 2 outside linebacker in the 2018 recruiting class. He had been trending towards Alabama for months before Wolk’s prediction.
It’s worth noting that Wolk has been correct on 91.5 percent of his predictions. He’s correctly predicted where recruits will land 43 out of 47 times in 2018.
The Vols are also trending positively for Greg Bell, a three-star junior college running back from Arizona Western College. Bell holds offers from Nebraska, Arizona, Louisville, Boise State, and others. Tennessee has picked up three predictions for his commitment over the last few days. Brodie DeSilva of SanDiegoPreps.com, Bud Elliot of SB Nation, and Steve Bartle of UteZone.come have all predicted Bell to Tennessee.
Bell’s teammate at Arizona Western, Jahmir Johnon, also picked up a prediction to commit to Tennessee. Johnson is a three-star offensive tackle and is the No. 4 offensive tackle in junior college in the 2018 class according to 247Sports. He holds offers from Nebraska, USC, UCLA, Arkansas, Texas, and others.
And who is predicting Johnson to come to Tennessee? The same Benjamin Wolk who is also projecting J.J. Peterson to commit to the Vols.
Tennessee has also picked up predictions for four-star, in-state offensive lineman Jerome Carvin. But the Vols aren’t the only ones picking up predictions for him.
Danny Parker of the Vols’ affiliate of 247Sports put in a prediction for Carvin to go to Tennessee last week, and Andrew Lind of Eleven Warriors did as well. But in the days since they put in their predictions to Tennessee, six other analysts have put in predictions for Carvin to go to Mississippi State. And one of those predictions came from 247Sports’ director of recruiting, Steve Wiltfong.
Carvin’s teammate at Cordova, Jeremy Banks, has only received predictions to Tennessee. The three-star running back, who ran for 1,941 yards and 32 touchdowns as a senior this year, has picked up 11 crystal ball predictions since December 10th. And all 11 of them have been for Tennessee.
Jaevon Becton, a three-star defensive end out of Virginia Beach, has also only picked up predictions for the Vols. Becton holds offers from Georgia, Virginia Tech, N.C. State, and Nebraska among others. He’s received three crystal ball predictions since December 13th, and all of them have been to the Vols.
Interestingly enough, one of the Vols’ current commits, running back Anthony Grant, has received several predictions to flip his commitment from Tennessee to Virginia Tech over the last couple days. Grant, a three-star running back out of Buford, Georgia, has received three predictions since December 17th to flip from the Vols to the Hokies.
Tennessee appears to be trending in the right direction for several of their top remaining targets in the 2018 class. If the Vols can land most if not all the players mentioned here that they’re trending towards, Jeremy Pruitt and his staff should be able to do more than just salvage the Vols’ 2018 class; they should be able to pull in a pretty decent class in this cycle.
