Elite Memphis lineman commits to Tennessee

GoVols247: A Tennessee Volunteers athletics podcast

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4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2019

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

GoVols247’s Wes Rucker (from Fort Rucker Studio) and Ryan Callahan (from out of town) convened via the magic of Al Gore’s Internets to discuss Tennessee’s Monday morning commitment from Omari Thomas, a star two-way lineman at Briarcrest Christian School in Memphis.

Thomas — the nation’s No. 104 overall prospect and No. 8 defensive tackle prospect in the 2020 industry-generated 247Sports Composite — had dozens of offers but ultimately chose the Vols over Auburn and Texas A&M.

At 6-foot-5, 300 pounds, Thomas has been a two-way line-of-scrimmage standout at Briarcrest, and he could project to either side of the ball at the next level, but he prefers defense and Tennessee plans on putting him there to start his career.

What led Thomas to Tennessee when at times he seemed a bit more likely to commit elsewhere? What kind of player is Thomas, and how does he project to the next level? Will his commitment impact the upcoming decision from Briarcrest running back Jabari Small? Is there any reason for concern that new Ole Miss (and former Tennessee) head coach Lane Kiffin will try to get the Rebels back into the picture for Thomas? Those are the main topics discussed in this breaking-news podcast episode.

The next GoVols247 Podcast episode will be released Thursday morning, unless breaking news occurs before that point.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi. What's up y'all?
0:13.0	West Rucker coming to you from Fort Rucker Studio, Ryan Callahan coming to you from
0:17.4	Parts Unknown, USA, and as you can tell by the shorter intro, we have a breaking news edition of the go voles 24 7
0:25.4	podcast and Ryan if you could do us the honor of telling us why we're giving a
0:29.7	breaking news podcast right now. Yeah big news for Tennessee on the recruiting trail.
0:34.6	Four-star defensive linemen O'Mari Thomas of Briarcrest Christian School in Eads,
0:40.1	Tennessee technically, but just outside Memphis.
0:42.8	Committing to Tennessee on Monday,
0:45.4	choosing the balls over Auburn and Texas A&M,
0:48.2	one of their long time top in state targets
0:51.2	and in Tennessee winning out in what has been a long and
0:55.8	and sort of winding recruitment that's had some sort of
0:58.9	of ebbs and flows at times.
1:00.1	It looked like Tennessee might not be the favorite,
1:02.4	but was definitely always still in it and they made him a priority for a long time and in the end beat out a couple teams that weren't really thought to be among the favorites at one point. It looked like Old Miss was a favorite at one point.
1:14.4	Arkansas was once higher on his list.
1:17.3	Those teams have obviously had coaching changes,
1:18.9	but even before that looked like they had kind of faded.
1:21.3	And Tennessee remained the constant and made a late surge, I think, over the last several weeks to land him and address one of its biggest needs really in the 20-20 class on the defensive lines.
1:32.4	So huge pick up for Tennessee and another
1:34.8	in-state addition to this class that they really needed here down the stretch and
1:38.3	they're hoping this will be just sort of a springboard to to what could be a pretty big finish here for Tennessee with a handful of spots still open in this class.
	...

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