Tennessee football in Aidan Mizell’s top three; Vols will have hard time landing him

On one hand, things are looking good for Tennessee football in its pursuit of Florida wide receiver Aidan Mizell. The Vols made another cut for him and are now in his top three. Making any cut for such an elite prospect is a big deal.

Since he comes out of Orlando, Fla., where Josh Heupel coached for three years with the UCF Knights, and since Heupel has a reputation of making stars out of receives, the Vols would appear to be a great fit. However, there are things working against Rocky Top too.

The four-star across the board out of Boone High School in Florida’s Orange County would have a lot of competition if he joined Tennessee football. Also, the Vols have two tough competitor schools to land him in the Alabama Crimson Tide and Florida Gators. He announced all three on Twitter Tuesday afternoon.

As you can see, he also announced Friday, July 29 as his commitment date. Obviously, Florida has the in-state advantage, and Gainesville isn’t too far from Orlando. Despite the questions surrounding the program with Billy Napier taking over, it’s still going to be hard for the Vols to overcome those factors.

Meanwhile, Alabama is Alabama. Nick Saban has turned into an offensive mastermind after decades of being a defensive guy, and that school has made superstars out of wide receivers more than any other in recent years. Who would turn down that chance.

Then you’ve got the state of receiver with UT. The Vols had a loaded class commit last year, and they added USC Trojans transfer Bru McCoy. Add in two athletes and a commitment at the position this year, and Heupel has set the team up nicely at the position. As a result, landing Mizell will be hard.

However, they did make this cut, and there are things that work in their favor, so you shouldn’t count him out altogether. Also, there are no favorites to land him on the Rivals Future Cast, so what happens two Fridays from now isn’t a done deal.

Florida is a plurality favorite on the Rivals Fan Future Cast and has the only 247Sports Crystal Ball prediction, with a medium confidence interval. On3 has them as a majority favorite. However, On3 had the Georgia Bulldogs in second, and they didn’t make the cut, so this could be an upset for Tennessee football.