Tennessee’s long-time quarterback commit made it official on Wednesday: He’s all Vol.
Four-star, pro-style quarterback Harrison Bailey officially put pen to paper and signed with Tennessee on Wednesday during the first day of the early signing period for the 2020 cycle. Bailey has been committed to the Vols since November 29th of 2018, choosing UT over Michigan as his other finalist at the time.
The 6-foot-4, 224-pound quarterback is rated as the No. 124 overall prospect and No. 4 pro-style quarterback in the 2020 class per the 247Sports rankings. He’s a top-50 overall prospect on Rivals and is in consideration for a potential fifth star on their recruiting service.
Fans were nervous several times throughout Bailey’s recruitment about a potential flip to another school or him decommitting despite Bailey giving little to no reason for those rumors to spread. But seeing him sign with the Vols is a sigh of relief to all Vol fans who still held worry in their hearts on Wednesday.
Bailey helped lead Marietta High School to their first state title since 1967 this season, and he put up the best numbers of his career in the process. As a senior, Bailey completed 272 of his 392 pass attempts (69.4 percent) for 4,261 yards, 44 touchdowns, and only nine interceptions while also running for three scores on the year. Bailey even caught a touchdown pass, giving him a total of 48 touchdowns this past season. He led the entire state of Georgia high school football players in passing yards this past season.
All of that culminated in a 15-2 record and a state title for Marietta.
Bailey was a participant in Nike’s The Opening Finals over the summer, participating as one of the select quarterbacks in the Elite 11 Finals. He’s also been invited to play in the All-American Bowl in January.
For his entire high school career, Bailey totaled 11,706 passing yards, 114 touchdowns, and 27 interceptions while completing 818 of his 1,293 attempts (63.3 percent). His 11,706 passing yards rank fourth all-time in Georgia high school football history, placing only behind Trevor Lawrence (13,908), Deshaun Watson (13,078), and Jake Fromm (12,745).
Bailey is an early enrollee, so he’ll get a chance very quickly to insert his name into Tennessee’s quarterback battle for 2020 and beyond.