Tennessee Football Recruiting: Derrick Henry, Derrick Green Visiting

The Charlotte native had offers from 21 schools, including Georgia, Michigan and Oregon, and had taken visits to Florida and Ohio State, but it came down to his final two: his home state school of North Carolina and the Volunteers. Last week, the consensus four-star recruit canceled an in-home visit with North Carolina coach Larry Fedora, telling the coach not to bother, he’d be committing to Tennessee.

North is a 6’3, 212-pounder with speed -- Rocky Top Talk writes that he’s recorded as running a 4.41 40. That’s a tough combination to find, which is why Rivals has ranked No. 2 in the nation among wide receivers and No. 37 among all players. Other services are a little less optimistic -- Scout considers him the No. 12 receiver in the country, ESPN even lower at No. 18 -- but both consider him to be one of the better prospects at the position in the nation.

Tennessee made the most of its time with five-star recruit Vonn Bell on campus over the weekend. The safety out of Rossville (Ga.) Ridgeland High School spoke with Scout about his visit ($):

Students chanted for Bell during the basketball game, and he is a major target of the Volunteers.

Davin Bellamy, a defensive end/outside linebacker recruit out of Chamblee (Ga.) High School, has a new leader, he told ESPN:

Bellamy is extremely concerned about early playing time, though the 6’5, 230-pound end likely needs to redshirt to add size and learn the game.

They’ll be looking to sway several recruits that are currently uncommitted or committed elsewhere.

One such recruit is Vonn Bell, a consensus five-star safety from Rossville, Georgia and Ridgeland HIgh School. Bell recently visited Alabama and Ohio State, but Tennessee figures to be on the short list.

Tennessee will also look to convince Joshua Dobbs, a four-star pro-style quarterback from Alpharetta High School in Alpharetta, Georgia. Dobbs is currently committed to play for the Arizona State Sun Devils.

“I think it was important for [Tennessee] to do that,” Mariakis said. “Mr. Bell said they talked more about Tennessee, their new philosophy and what they were bringing to the table more so than they talked about Vonn’s role in that. I think they’ll get to that this weekend when he takes an official visit.”

As Mariakis notes, Bell will take an official visit to Tennessee this weekend. He visited Alabama last weekend, and he was in Columbus to visit Ohio State the weekend of Jan. 11.

Some huge news in Knoxville tonight, as multiple sources are reporting that Tennessee defensive-line commitment Jason Carr will stick with his commitment to the Volunteers.

Carr recently took a visit to Alabama and many recruiting experts expected him to flip to the Tide. That won’t happen, however, and it appears an in-home visit with Tennessee’s coaching staff is to thank.

Tennessee is expecting visits from committed recruits including wide receiver Ryan Jenkins, a consensus three-star recruit from Marietta (Ga.) Lassiter High School, offensive tackle Austin Sanders, a consensus three-star recruit from Cleveland (Tenn.) Bradley Central High School, and athlete Cameron Sutton, a consensus three-star recruit from Jonesboro (Ga.) Jonesboro High School, among others.

They’ll also be looking to sway a group of recruits that is currently uncommitted or committed elsewhere. One such recruit is defensive end Carl Lawson, a consensus five-star recruit from Alpharetta (Ga.) Milton High School, who is currently committed to Auburn, and is scheduled to visit North Carolina on Jan. 25.

What a huge weekend Tennessee has planned on Rocky Top. Florida is coming to town. ESPN’s College Gameday will be there. It’s been a long time since the Volunteers have played a game of this magnitude.

So it makes sense that Tennessee would try to have top recruits visit when the 100,000+ are at their loudest.

Tennessee football recruiting has been busy of late and SB Nation’s Rocky Top Talk has it covered. In the past week, the Volunteers have added quarterback recruit Riley Ferguson, outside linebacker prospect Zach Barnes and JUCO defensive tackle Ben Bradley.

Ferguson is highly rated by ESPN, which labels him as a top-200 prospect. Barnes is rather unheralded at this point, and it is still a bit early for junior college ratings to debut for a player such as Bradley. All three players are at a position of need for the Volunteers, who now have 12 verbal commitments in the class of 2013. RTT has a ridiculous amount of information on these three prospects at the link provided above.

We’re pleased to be joined by Volunteers recruiting expert Brad Shepard, who has lots and lots of insights on the state of UT football. Brad, Tennessee signed a consensus top-20 recruiting class in 2012. Did this meet, exceed or fall short of your expectations?

What was the most important thing that Tennessee did in its 2012 class?

Tennessee recently added a linebacker commitment in recruit De’Vondre Cambell and Brad Shepard of Tennessee site Rocky Top Talk has a look at Cambell:

Make sure to check out the rest of Shepard’s evaluation at Rocky Top Talk as Tennessee continues to add linebackers for its new 3-4 defensive scheme under coordinator Sal Sunseri.