Tennessee Football: Vols Offer OL Jalen Merrick
By Zach Ragan
On Tuesday, the Tennessee Volunteers offered a three-star 2015 offensive tackle that calls the “shark bite capital of the world” his home.
Jalen Merrick, a 6’5″/295 lb OL from New Smyrna Beach, FL (New Smyrna Beach), has an incredibly impressive list of offers for a three-star recruit. He has notable offers from Alabama, Florida, Florida State, LSU, Miami, Ohio State and Oklahoma, among many others.
247Sports rates Merrick as the 51st best player in the state of Florida and the 43rd best offensive tackle in the nation.
As is always the case, it’ll be tough for any program to pull Merrick out of the state of Florida. When you’ve got three powerhouse schools like Florida, Florida State and Miami, it’s hard to convince a recruit to leave sunny Florida.
But if Merrick is growing tired of the beach life (although I can’t imagine why anyone would), then East Tennessee would be a perfect place for him.
Of course there’s much more that goes into a recruit’s final decision, but sometimes the little things are what end up making the difference.
Regardless, Tennessee would be lucky to land Merrick. They currently have no depth along their offensive line and Merrick would be a nice addition.