The recruiting world felt the wrath of the Tennessee Volunteers as of late. They’ve received 13 verbal commitments in the class of 2025 alone since June 1st. It’s been an onslaught of elite talent making their decisions known, they are coming to Knoxville to play for the Tennessee Volunteers.
Perhaps no commitment has been more monumental this class than the announcement from Five-Star tackle David Sanders Jr who announced last week that he’d be taking his talents to Neyland Stadium and committing to the Vols.
Most in the recruiting industry foresought Sanders landing with Tennessee, as the Vols held most of the momentum down the stretch in Sanders’ recruitment. However, there may be some people wondering “How?” How did Tennessee land this five-star talent over the like of Ohio State and Georgia. Some spightful fanbases might blame the loss on NIL nowadays. However, Ohio State insider Jermey Birmingham says quiete the opposite about why The Buckeyes lost out on Sanders.
Birmingham was on THE Podcast and had this to say about where Ohio State’s point of view landed on Sanders.
“Ohio State was willing do that (make a big NIL offer) in this instance. They were willing to pay David Sanders, from my understanding, more money than the rest of the offensive line currently makes. Or close to it. This was not a money issue. This was a closer to home issue.”
This was not a money issue, this was a closer to home issue. That’s handles Ohio State, but how did Tennessee manage to beat Georgia? A program that has historically produced some of the NFL Draft’s highest ranked offensive tackle prospect over the last half-decade. Well, it couldn’t have been proximity, both Knoxville and Athens are relatively equidistant from Charlotte, North Carolina. Simply put… Tennessee just beat them.
