Tennessee has taken the early lead over Ohio State by landing highly-coveted offensive tackle David Sanders, Jr.
The five-star prospect from Charlotte (N.C.) Providence Day made his signing known on the The Paul Finebaum Show on Thursday evening after surprising some by not signing on Wednesday, which was the first day of the early signing period. In that same time, the Vols and Buckeyes have tentatively been scheduled to play in the first round of the College Football Playoff. Chalk one up for Tennessee.
This as a much-needed win as well given the fact that UT came in behind Ohio State in the Tuesday CFP rankings, which would mean the Vols would have to visit OSU. With neither team playing in conference championship weekend, it’s hard to see that changing.
Sanders had been committed to Tennessee since August and made several visits to see the Vols. However, a trip to the Ohio State-Indiana game had some wondering if he might back off of his decision. That was not the case.
“Tennessee has been in it from the very beginning. They offered me as a freshman in high school and they’ve been kind of on me every year since then — expressing to me that I was a priority in their class and a must-get for the class of 2025,” Sanders told Finebaum about his decision.
“Coach Heupel has expressed to me many times that I’m the leader of this class and he wants me to come in and really lead them along with our quarterback and the other recruits that we have as well. Tennessee did a great job recruiting me. The recruiting class they have coming in, I feel like we have a great mix of guys. We have a great quarterback, great receivers, a good defensive corps and other offensive linemen as well along with myself.”
