Tennessee football: Five most underrated recruits in Vols 2020 class

Back in late October, Tennessee football got an amazing haul of three linebackers all out of Whitehaven High School in Memphis. All three of them were four-stars on Rivals. Two of them, Bryson Eason and Martavius French, were four-star linebackers across most services and earned a 247Sports composite four-star rating as a result. Only Eason was a unanimous four-star.

Eason and French are both inside linebackers as well. Tamarion McDonald, however, was only a four-star on Rivals and a three-star everywhere else. At the same time, he is listed as an outside linebacker. So he’s a bit unique compared to the other two, and it appears to be hurting his rating. However, that’s a bit unfair since it can be explained away.

McDonald spent most of his high school career playing defensive back. As his senior season hit, though, he grew rapidly. Now, he’s listed at 6’2″ 215 pounds. That’s still not linebacker size yet, but given the conditioning program the Vols have, it’s pretty clear he’ll be able to put on more strength once he gets to Rocky Top. Jeremy Pruitt hasn’t had issues on that front yet.

When that happens, there’s no reason to believe McDonald can’t be a four-star quality outside linebacker across the board. As of right now, the transition appears to have clearly hurt his ratings, as it’s hard for some services to pin down exactly where he belongs. But that’s resulting in him being highly underrated. He has the same level of talent as his teammates, and that will show.