Tennessee football makes cut for 2023 Kentucky athlete Cristian Conyer

Over the past couple of days, Josh Heupel has gotten Tennessee football into recruiting battles with rival SEC East schools for cornerbacks from those schools’ home states. It started when UT made the top six for Florida defensive back Ja’Keem Jackson, who is also looking at the Gators.

Now, the Vols are one of two finalists for Cristian Conyer of Kentucky. You guessed it. The Kentucky Wildcats are the other finalist. A three-star across the board, Conyer is listed as an athlete across the board, but Ryan Callahan of 247Sports lists him as a cornerback as well.

Coming out of South Warren High School in Bowling Green, Ky., Conyer is 6’1″ and weighs in the range of 165 to 170 pounds. He announced his list Thursday afternoon along with the fact that he would be making his commitment on Sunday, July 3.

As mentioned with Jackson, Tennessee football is in pretty good shape with cornerbacks in terms of numbers going forward, largely because they added Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets transfer Wesley Walker and Ohio State Buckeyes transfer Andre Turrentine. Junior college transfer Desmond Williams joined the team too.

Now, the Vols did lose Alontae Taylor and nickel Theo Jackson this past year, and Warren Burrell is the only proven starter for the Vols heading into this year. He’ll be gone by 2024 at the latest too. As a result, Rocky Top could stand to add a few more cornerbacks.

Of course, Conyer could play wide receiver for the Vols if Heupel needed him to do that. However, all signs point to him playing on the defensive side of the ball. Either way, though, he would be a solid pickup for the Vols, so his upcoming decision is very newsworthy.

Currently, Kentucky is the slight favorite. They and the Vols each have one 247Sports Crystal Ball prediction, but UK’s is a high confidence interval while UT’s is a medium interval. Meanwhile, On3 has them as a 56.3 percent favorite with Rocky Top at 43.7 percent.

Now, on the Rivals Future Cast, Kentucky is a unanimous favorite, but that’s an outlier, and although unscientific, Tennessee football is a majority favorite. As a result, The Vols are in decent shape to land him, although they are an underdog.