'X' Recruiting Report: 'Tennessee capped off the last official visit weekend before a recruiting dead period by hosting 13 official visitors and on Sunday hosted a select number of 2023 and 2024 prospects who participated in the last camp of the summer.

The official visit weekend produced immediate positive results for Tennessee. Defensive back John Slaughter III from Southaven, Mississippi, took to his social media account on Saturday and announced he was committed to Tennessee. Sunday afternoon brought more good news when Gainesville, Georgia, linebacker Jeremiah Telander joined Slaughter and announced he too had committed to Tennessee.
Slaughter and Telander are the 11th and 12th commitments respectively for the 2023 class. Interestingly, of the 12 commitments to date, 7 are defensive prospects. Of the 7 commitments projected to play defense, 3 are projected to play in the secondary.

Another interesting tidbit …. from May 27 through June 26 Tennessee hosted 30 prospects on official visits. The NCAA permits each school 56 official visits a recruiting cycle. First, my how the recruiting cycle has been turned upside down. The more I ponder the use of so many official visits in June it has me thinking 1) Tennessee expects to get a lot of its 2023 class committed in July when many of their top targets announce their decisions; 2) Tennessee plans to have most of its 2023 recruiting class signed in December; 3) with the use of so many official visits so far, there is no margin for error in using the remaining official visits; and 4) quite a curious strategy since the NCAA is allowing schools to sign more than 25 prospects in this recruiting cycle and next.


June is/was an uber important month for the football team. The flurry of official visitors has already been discussed but there is always a stream of unofficial visitors that come to check the facilities out as well. Then, Tennessee was staggered with a couple of body blows during the month that impacted recruiting. One of their top prospects, who had given everyone indications he was announcing for Tennessee, chose Ohio State.

Too, for an instant in time, Tennessee’s recruiting momentum got “paused”. Whether the explanation is “kids will be kids” or “this is recruiting you win some and lose” or the explanation is yet another self-inflicted wound due to NIL administrative snafus, something happened to get things off the rails. However, it does now appear Tennessee has seemingly got its second wind. Now, all eyes turn to the month of July where Tennessee looks to get on a bit of a recruiting roll before the start of fall practice.


John Slaughter III Slaughter is a 6’1-6’2” 200 lb. athlete from Southaven, Miss. He projects as a safety or at the star position in college. 247 rates Slaughter as a 4-star prospect while Rivals rates him initially as a 3-star prospect (when Rivals re-ranks prospects expect Slaughter to receive a 4-star rating). Slaughter picked Tennessee over Ole Miss, Florida State, and Mississippi State. That doesn’t really tell his recruiting story.

He attended an Under Armour camp in January/February and by all accounts had an excellent showing. Other schools took note. However, Slaughter, at that time, had Tennessee as his school of choice and for all practical purposes decided not to accept camp invites to other schools. He is ranked in the pre-season as the 13th best football senior prospect in the talent rich state of Mississippi. He is an all-everything kind of player in high school where he plays wide receiver, running back, special teams and in the secondary. Simply, he is good football prospect who could make an impact on special teams early before settling in on defense.


Jeremiah Telander Telander attended summer camp at Tennessee last June and received an offer before the camp was over. He is a 6”2” 215 lb. inside linebacker prospect who is one of those linebackers referred to as a “sideline-to-sideline” player. For 3 years, Telander attended North Hills high school in Hall County Georgia. He was named defensive player of the year for the region in 2 of those 3 years. Last season at North Hall, Telander had 137 tackles, 33 tackles for loss, 3 sacks, 5 takeaways on defense. He also caught 18 passes and returned 4 kickoffs for 180 yards and a touchdown.

Telander transferred to Gainesville High School for his senior season and is immediately eligible to play. Telander’s father is a former college coach who worked with Tennessee Defensive Coordinator Tim Banks at Bowling Green in the late 1990s. Telander chose Tennessee over Florida, Louisville, and North Carolina. It will be interesting to see if Georgia tries to get involved with Telander later in the recruiting cycle. He camped there but he is down their linebacker board a bit.
What's Next For Vols:

It is a huge next week for Tennessee. Defensive back Christian Conyers makes his choice between Tennessee or Kentucky on July 3. Conyers is an elite talent. He is also the top defensive back on Tennessee’s 2023 recruiting board. This recruitment favored Tennessee for months but in the last 3 weeks momentum has swung back and forth between the VOLS and the Wildcats.

On July 4 Frances Mauigoa a 5-star offensive tackle from IMG Academy in Florida is set to announce between Tennessee, USC, and Miami of Florida. Mauigoa is coming off an official visit to Tennessee where he was thought to be leaning before his official visit to USC. Again, this is a recruitment where the momentum has swung back and forth between schools for the last few months.


On July 5th, Hutchinson Community College receiver Malik Benson is scheduled to pick from schools such as Oregon, Alabama, LSU, and Tennessee. Benson is a big-play wide receiver. Benson dominated last season in junior college because athletically he is better than everyone he competed against. Check this out. As a senior in high school, Benson ran a 10.44, 100 meter dash; a 21.38, 200 meter dash; and long jumped 25 feet. He stands 6’0” and 190 lbs. with the wingspan of a person who stands 6’5”. He named Tennessee his leader heading into the Alabama visit. We will see where he decides on July 5


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In the meantime enjoy your summer and thanks for reading..


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