A brief frenzy of speculation occurred on National Signing Day Eve with the buzz that four-star linebacker E.J. Levenberry may be flipping to Tennessee from Florida State.
After all, who schedules an announcement to stick with a team he's been committed to for months?
Welcome to recruiting, ladies and gentlemen, as the Tennessee Vols got off to rough start Tuesday night as Levenberry announced he'd be sticking with the Seminoles. Around the same time, Rivals.com's Mike Farrell tweeted the expected news that he is hearing Davin Bellamy -- another of UT's targets -- is a virtual lock to Georgia. Bellamy isn't expected to announce officially until Wednesday.
Though few expected Levenberry -- a Virginia native who once favored UT early in the process -- to sign with Tennessee the past few days, UT fans got their hopes up Tuesday afternoon. Heading into last weekend's official visit to UT, several recruiting sites were saying there was a legitimate possibility the Vols could flip Levenberry, who eliminated UT early largely because he didn't care for defensive coordinator Sal Sunseri. When FSU hired Sunseri to coach defensive ends, the Levenberry family became open to hearing from Tennessee.
Though Tommy Thigpen got the Vols back in the mix, Levenberry's relationship with the remaining coaches at FSU and with head coach Jimbo Fisher were too much to overcome.
As for Bellamy, the Vols made a strong push and the Atlanta prospect figured to be favoring UT after his visit to Knoxville three weekends ago. But he went to Athens on the heels of that visit and has had the Dawgs on top ever since. If he signs with anybody but Georgia on Wednesday, it'll be a shocker.
Oh well. 0-for-2 start. Not exactly how we were hoping things would go. Maybe we can at least get Jaylen Miller and potentially Vonn Bell. The five-star safety would make the class a success ... but even he's far from a sure thing right now. Get ready for a wacky finish; hopefully it will be better than this.