The Early Signing Period didn’t get off to the best start for Tennessee, as the Vols lost out on Darrion Smith. A 2025 three-star defensive lineman out of St. Frances Academy in Baltimore, Md., Smith flipped from UT to the Auburn Tigers.
That’s actually a good sign.
All due respect to Smith, who is 6’2″ 260 pounds, he is a three-star across every service. Josh Heupel’s program entered Wednesday targeting a much more highly touted defensive lineman who was set to commit Wednesday afternoon.
We’re obviously talking about North Carolina 2025 prospect Isaiah Campbell.
At just over 6’3″ and weighing 265 pounds, Campbell is a four-star across every service, clearly rated more highly than Smith. Coming out of Southern High School in Durham, N.C., Campbell was initially committed to the Clemson Tigers, but UT emerged as a favorite entering Wednesday.
Beyond Campbell, the Vols already had highly touted defensive linemen Mariyon Dye and Ethan Utley committed. Given the success Rodney Garner had with his unit up front this year, you could also likely bank on a lot of elite linemen coming in through the transfer portal.
Taking all of that into account, Smith, who committed in July, likely saw the writing on the wall. It was going to be incredibly hard for him to get into the rotation given what the Vols had coming in, so he flipped to Hugh Freeze’s program.
Of course, a lot of this evidence was out there during the course of the season, and Smith flipped on Signing Day. Also, there are some openings that will come on the defensive line next year with Omari Thomas, Omarr Norman-Lott and Elijah Simmons all leaving.
That’s why the most likely reason he flipped is that he knows more talent is coming, which is where Campbell comes in. Campbell is somebody UT has been after for a while at this point. Either way, though, the Vols will be fine up front.
