5-star Tennessee football target gives Vols fans hope but there's a catch

On Friday, the final decision will be coming in for 5-star offensive lineman Darius Gray. For a while now, Tennessee football has been high on him and the hope has been that the staff will be able to pull off a bit of a stunner.

This week, Gray got Vols fans pretty hyped up when he responded to a fan account with an orange emoji. It might not seem like much, but people were convinced that maybe, just maybe, Tennessee would take down South Carolina and others for a head-turning recruiting win.

5-star OL Darius Gray is expected to commit to South Carolina over Tennessee and others

For the past day, it's been nice to think about Gray donning a Vols jersey at the next level. However, we can go ahead and hold the phone on that. On Thursday, the official prediction came in from Steve Wiltfong for South Carolina and Shane Beamer to get the news they're hoping for.

Thud. This went ahead and tossed cold water over everyone who thought Gray was leaning towards UT. Yeah, it's going to be a bit of a bummer for head man Josh Heupel if this goes down, especially after he missed out on 5-star running back Savion Hiter earlier in the week.

It's not all bad news for Tennessee's recruiting efforts, however. On Thursday, 4-star offensive tackle Kamari Blair surprised a lot of people when he flipped his commitment from South Carolina to Tennessee. Where in the heck did this come from?

This summer, Blair picked USC when a lot of people thought he was going to be Knoxville-bound. It didn't take long for him to realize that he wants to stay home to play his college ball, which is of course great for Heupel and the rest of the offensive line. Keep in mind that in-state OT Gabriel Osenda, a 5-star verbal, is also on board.

As for Gray, it always felt like this was going to come down to either South Carolina or LSU. Tennessee got him to town for an official visit and Heupel gave him something to think about, but the Gamecocks pulled away in the end. No big deal - time to go after the next guy on the board.