Through the T: Tennessee’s 2024 class on the rise after Jake Merklinger commitment

Tennessee news and notes: Friday, March 31st

Tennessee made another splash in the 2024 recruiting cycle, landing 4-star quarterback Jake Merklinger. The Georgia product is the 55th overall player in the class, so naturally that provided the Volunteers with a nice early boost in the recruiting class rankings at 247Sports. Tennessee moved up to sixth overall after landing their fourth top 150 prospect. Josh Heupel and his staff are off to a really nice start once again, needless to say.

The Volunteers hosted all 32 NFL teams in Knoxville on Thursday for their pro day event. Cedric Tillman, Jalin Hyatt, Darnell Wright, Jerome Carvin and others were all in action, and Hendon Hooker even got to do a little throwing. Hooker said he’s started to throw over the last couple of weeks, continuing to work back from that torn ACL in November. He continues to say that he’s ahead of schedule and should be ready for training camp late this summer.

Going deeper on the pro day, here are the highlights of the day.

Josh Heupel did an interview with On3’s J.D. Pickell, talking about the state of his program. Specifically, Heupel got into some Joe Milton and Nico Iamaleava talk at the end.

The Lady Vols got big news on Thursday, adding point guard Destinee Wells out of the transfer portal. Wells averaged 18.1 points during her career at Belmont, and now will help fill the void in the back court with Jordan Horston moving on to the WNBA.

Tennessee baseball dropped game one of the LSU series last night. Late defensive mistakes ultimately doomed the night, spoiling a fun 2-2 game late. Game two is set for 7 p.m. ET tonight in Baton Rouge, with Chase Burns getting the start for the Vols.