Five-star outside linebacker Sav’ell Smalls has Tennessee in his top six

Fresh off of landing four-star pass rusher B.J. Ojulari on Friday, Tennessee has popped into another top choice for another top edge rushing prospect. Sav’ell Smalls named Tennessee to his top six schools on Sunday afternoon, along with Alabama, Washington, Florida State, Washington State and Oregon.

The 6-3, 227 pound Washington native is a five-star prospect, landing as the top overall outside linebacker prospect in the 2020 class. Smalls checks in as the 9th overall prospect in the class, according to the 247 Sports Composite Rankings.

Smalls visited Knoxville just a few weeks ago, checking out the campus on a two day trip at the end of July.

Tennessee wasn’t in Smalls’ initial top 12 that he released back in February, but they’ve since joined the race and seem to be legitimate contenders. Smalls even called Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt “the outside linebacker master” in an interview earlier in the summer.

Pruitt has placed tight ends coach Brian Niedermeyer on the case of Smalls, looking to reel in another big west coast linebacker prospect this fall. Niedermeyer was the lead recruiter of four-star linebacker Henry To’oto’o last year, which the Vols pulled out of California. This year, Niedermeyer is going all the way up to Burien, Washington in hopes of pulling another elite prospect.

With Darrell Taylor walking out the door after this year, Tennessee could use every ounce of pass rushing help that they can find in the 2020 class.