Tennessee Vols: The reason Kansas transfer Da'Jon Terry wasn't heavily recruited out of high school
The Tennessee Vols received a big roster addition last week with the commitment of Kansas defensive tackle transfer Da'Jon Terry. The Mississippi native announced his intentions to transfer to Tennessee via Twitter. Terry, 6-foot-4/320 lbs, is a defensive lineman that's described as a "hard worker" and someone who is "always in the building working". After […]
The Tennessee Vols received a big roster addition last week with the commitment of Kansas defensive tackle transfer Da'Jon Terry.
The Mississippi native announced his intentions to transfer to Tennessee via Twitter.
Terry, 6-foot-4/320 lbs, is a defensive lineman that's described as a "hard worker" and someone who is "always in the building working".
After Terry's commitment, it didn't take long for a few negative comments to show up on social media. It shouldn't come as a surprise that some folks were tweeting about Tennessee landing transfers from a winless Kansas team.
And then there were the inevitable comments about how Terry was rated as a recruit in high school.
Terry was rated as a three-star recruit out of Meridian, MS. 247Sports' composite rankings had him as the No. 124 defensive tackle in the nation.
It shouldn't matter how Terry was rated in high school — none of that matters once high school is over.
But for the people who are concerned about the optics of UT taking a former three-star recruit from Kansas, there's a really good reason why Terry wasn't a higher-rated player in high school.
It's because the massive defensive lineman didn't start playing football until his senior year.
Terry spent most of his high school career as a basketball player. According to The Athletic's David Ubben, it wasn't until right before Terry's senior year that he decided to give football a chance because he realized he'd have a better chance at a scholarship.
The fact he landed scholarship offers from Power-5 programs is amazing.
When Terry decided to leave Kansas, he had a lot more attention than he had in high school. Terry told Ubben that Auburn, Ole Miss, and Texas A&M were among the programs in pursuit.
Terry chose Tennessee mostly because of his connection to Vols defensive line coach Rodney Garner.
The Vols have a potential stud in Terry. And when he's making big plays in Neyland Stadium this fall, no one will care that he played at Kansas last season, or that he was lightly recruited out of high school.
They'll only care about the results.
And I feel confident we'll see plenty of positive results from Terry.
Featured image via Tennessee Athletic Communications
