Tennessee football makes cut for four-star 2022 in-state RB

The Tennessee football Volunteers are in the 2022 Murfreesboro, Tenn. four-star running back’s top four.

Jeremy Pruitt has done everything possible to try to build depth at running back for Tennessee football, and with two commitments in 2020 and two more for 2021, he’s in the process of doing that. He’s now got the Vols trending for another in-state back.

Rocky Top made the cut for in-state running back Jordan Bryant-James. A unanimous four-star out of Oakland High School in Murfreesboro, Tenn., Bryant-James stands at 5’10” 200 pounds and has the Vols in his top four.

Joining Tennessee football in Bryant-James’ list are two other SEC schools, the Alabama Crimson Tide and Georgia Bulldogs, and an ACC schools Florida State Seminoles. He announced his schools late Tuesday afternoon on Twitter.

With senior running back Ty Chandler, who hails from Nashville set to graduate, Bryant-James would continue a pipeline the Vols have had for a few years now when it comes to in-state running backs. After all, Eric Gray, who would be a senior in 2022, comes out of Memphis.

Meanwhile, Tee Hodge, a freshman in this class, hails from Knoxville, and Jabari Small, another freshman, hails from the Memphis area like Gray. Both commitments for 2021, however, in three-star Jaylen Wright and four-star Cody Brown, are out-of-staters.

Still, Bryant-James would give the Vols potentially a third four-star running back on the 2022 roster and a fourth running back from within the state. That’s a lot of depth and value, and since Pruitt has consistently discussed his desire for a four-running back set, it’s a great rotation.

As of right now, the Vols’ only commitment for 2022 is defensive end Jimmy Scott, who hails from New York. They clearly need more splash commitments to build up their roster, but to be fair, they only had three 2021 commitments by this time last year and only one four-star.

There are no 247Sports Crystal Ball or Rivals Future Cast predictions for Bryant-James yet, but Tennessee football is a majority favorite to land him on the Rivals Fan Future Cast. Pruitt definitely needs to keep this guy in the state, and he just got one step closer to doing that.