The Martin, Tenn. kicker committed to the Tennessee football Volunteers.
With Brent Cimaglia entering his senior year, Tennessee football was going to have an open competition for his replacement heading into the 2021 season. Jeremy Pruitt just added another player to that competition.
West Tennessee kicker and punter JT Carver committed to the Vols. A product of Westview High School in Martin, Tenn., Carver stands at 5’11” 175 pounds and was named the No. 14 ranked kicker nationally in the 2021 class by Kohl’s Kicking.
Carver does not have any ratings on Rivals or 247Sports, and he will enroll in January as a preferred walk-on. He announced his decision to commit to Tennessee football Wednesday evening on Twitter.
Committed🍊 #GBO pic.twitter.com/pUMHAuErGJ
— JT Carver (@jt_carver) August 5, 2020
Once again, the Vols are adding a strong leg to their field goal kicking in Carver. Chris Sailer Kicking reports that Carver has a range of 55 yards off the ground, and he averages 65 yards on kickoffs with 3.85+ hang times. Last year, he never missed an extra point. Now, he did only make five of eight field goals, but two were blocked, and one was beyond 40.
Those are impressive numbers for a high school kid, and he’s likely to get better this year. What’s clear is that he brings a strong leg to the table, and with better long snapping, blocking and holding, which will happen at the college level, his production should improve dramatically.
According to Brent Hubbs of Rivals, Carver grew up in Knoxville until his father Keith became the chancellor at UT Martin. He played soccer growing up but drew national attention for his abilities as a kicker.
Currently, there are three other place kickers on Tennessee football’s roster who will be competing for the starting job next year and all three are in-state guys: Luke Lynn out of South Doyle High School in Knoxville, Toby Wilson out of Brentwood Academy in Brentwood and Marshall Ware out of Germantown High School in Germantown. All three will be sophomores this year.
Taking that into account, Pruitt has done a great job of making sure he’s set at the place kicking position for years to come, as it will be extremely hard for the Vols to replace the production of Cimaglia. Carver is a great addition to that end.