The 2008 Recruiting Board has been updated in the area of linebackers.
LB Scuttlebutt:
Added Jon Major, Reggie Bowens, Don'ta Hightower, and Tenarius Wright ... Linked to articles on EJ Abrams-Ward, Jerrell Harris, Ricky Holloway, Chris Jordan, Austin Johnson, Bradly Roussel, Etienne Sabino, Marlon Walls, Jonathan Willard ... Nearly dropped Terrell Manning (his top 3 seems to change a lot) ... Dropped Shayne Hale (who droppped UT a long time ago)
Dangerously uninformed opinion: The most interesting guy here is probably Abrams-Ward, who could line up just about anywhere on the field and be darn good there. His brightest future seems to be at LB or DE, but at the UNC camp he attended he felt he played his best at WR (and at 6-5/210 makes for a heck of a target). He also plays QB. I want the Vols to sign him just to see what they do with him. Similar to Abrams-Ward is Brentwood Acad. LB/RB Chris Jordan, who I've listed with the LBs b/c that's where I think Tennessee is recruiting him, though he could (and apparently wants to) play the other side of the ball. Both are pretty wide-open in the process right now.
I have no idea if Tennessee has a shot at Terrell Manning. His top 3 has changed a couple of times, but UT is always the 4th school mentioned, so he shakily stays around the list. Shakily added to the list is the serendipitously-named Jon Major, who has UT in his top 11. I suppose that's a good thing, even if really broad. In a similar situation is Etienne Sabino -- whose name oddly reminds me of those "ATM fix everything!" commercials from years back -- a VHT if there ever was and a guy being recruited by all the heavy hitters. Unfortunately Etienne doesn't mention UT in a lot of articles other than a Scout article in which he claims Tennessee has "the best football facilities I've ever seen," so I'm mostly keeping him on the list with the blind faith that nice brick edifices can lure a teenager to his school of choice.
There's a group of guys here who seem to really like UT, including Bowens, Roussel, Walls, and Willard. Based on what I've read, Roussel really wants to be a Vol and Walls will probably end up here if we don't lose him to Florida. Oh, man, if we lose an in-state kid to Florida, I might slam my head in a car door... would that be over-reacting?
Also, I always forget to put this at the end of these posts, but if you see any glaring omissions/mistakes on the recruiting board, leave a comment or email Andy at cornfromajar -AT- gmail -DOT- com or Joel at rockytoptalk -AT- gmail -DOT- com.