Just In: Tennessee Five Star Players Are Signed in
The Vols will host a junior-college defensive lineman who has Tennessee on his short list of potential destinations next week. Tennessee is currently the only SEC school on Jamal Wallace’s list of top five college choices, which he revealed in a post on his X account. Wallace is a defensive lineman in the class of 2024 at Sierra College in Rocklin, California.
Houston, Memphis, Utah State and USF joined the Vols in the group of front-runners for the 6-foot-4, 269-pound Wallace, who’s planning to take an official visit to Tennessee the weekend of Dec. 15. In October, he told GoVols247 that the Vols were at the top of his list, at least partly because “Tennessee was actually my dream school” even before the Vols started recruiting him.
Wallace is set to travel to USF this weekend for an official visit with the Bulls before heading to Tennessee the weekend before Early Signing Day. He has already taken official visits to North Texas, Houston and Utah State.
Wallace, who attended Ruskin High School in Kansas City, Mo., before going the junior-college route, said Tennessee caught his attention because of former Vols star safety Eric Berry. Wallace, a former high school safety, naturally was drawn to Berry, who played for the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs. Wallace liked Berry even more after hearing former Tennessee cornerback Inky Johnson talk about Berry.
“I became a fan of (Berry) after I heard a story that was told about him,” Wallace said. “(Johnson) told a story about Tennessee, and then about Eric Berry, and that all just fell into place. But I didn’t know about Eric Berry until he got to the Chiefs, and then his whole background. Then, I found out.”
Wallace said he likes that the Vols were “one game away” from making the College Football Playoff last year.
“Now there are 12 teams that can go to the playoffs next year, so I feel like that’d be exciting for me to be able to go to the playoffs with them if I choose Tennessee,” he said.
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Wallace said he has been hearing from “the whole coaching staff” at Tennessee since getting an offer from the Vols on Sept. 23. Tennessee defensive coordinator Tim Banks traveled to California to visit his school in October leading up to the Vols’ open date, and Tennessee recruiting analyst Aaron Amaama contacted Wallace on Sept. 23 to inform him of his offer from the Vols.
Since then, Tennessee defensive line coach Rodney Garner, senior defensive analyst Levorn Harbin and even head coach Josh Heupel have stayed in touch with Wallace. Garner traveled to Sierra on Friday to see Wallace and his team take on College of the Sequoias of Visalia, Calif., in their regular-season finale.
Wallace, who primarily plays outside linebacker at Sierra, said the Vols have told him they like “that I’m very twitchy, and they want somebody playing (opposite) James Pearce.” A sophomore defensive end, Pearce is tied for seventh nationally with seven sacks through Tennessee’s first seven games this season.
“They want somebody to play on the other side along with him, so that’s really been the pitch for them,” Wallace said, “and they feel like I can be that person.”
Wallace added that the Vols envision using him as a “five- and a three-tech,” playing him at both defensive end and defensive tackle.
