Tennessee Football Recruiting: Elijah Conliffe Commits to Florida Gators

Tennessee football suffered a huge loss the night before National Signing Day. Four-star defensive tackle Elijah Conliffe committed to the Florida Gators.

He was the one guy that could help Tennessee football make a splash on National Signing Day. But four-star defensive lineman Elijah Conliffe committed to the Florida Gators the night before instead.

After spending the past couple of weeks as the favorite, the 247Sports Crystal Ball had him trending to Florida the day before his commitment.

The Gators became the favorite for 89 percent of the recruiting experts, while the Vols were just 11 percent. And Conliffe fulfilled the mainstream predictions.

This is huge loss given Conliffe’s ability.

He is a 6’4″ 305-pound defensive tackle who also has the speed to line up at end. If you just go by physical attributes, the guy should be a five-star recruit.

But he is a four-star across all services.

So the next question is, why was there such a quick flip?

There could be a few reasons, obviously.

Maybe Florida made a lasting impression down the stretch. At the same time maybe the Vols were making gains with other defensive linemen, like LaBryan Ray, and he was concerned about a major surprise upset on National Signing Day, cutting into his potential to play early.

The more likely scenario, though, is just that the Vols just lost out on him. But without him, Butch Jones and the coaching staff let a gem slip away.

And the loss dropped them further down the SEC recruiting rankings.