Former Vols standout is recruiting against Tennessee for key 2024 recruit
2024 four-star athlete Daniel Hill is a player that's on the Tennessee Vols' recruiting radar. Hill, 6-foot-1/223 lbs from Meridian, MS, is ranked in 247Sports' composite rankings as the No. 12 athlete in the nation and the No. 6 player in the state of Mississippi. According to On3.com's Sam Spiegelman, Hill is "eyeing" a visit […]
2024 four-star athlete Daniel Hill is a player that's on the Tennessee Vols' recruiting radar.
Hill, 6-foot-1/223 lbs from Meridian, MS, is ranked in 247Sports' composite rankings as the No. 12 athlete in the nation and the No. 6 player in the state of Mississippi.
According to On3.com's Sam Spiegelman, Hill is "eyeing" a visit to Tennessee in April (he's reportedly visited UT four times already).
Hill is also set to visit South Carolina on April 8. The Gamecocks have been building some momentum in the battle for Hill. At this point, it appears that South Carolina has a legitimate shot to land the talented recruit.
Part of the reason the Gamecocks have some momentum with Hill is because of former Vols running back Montario Hardesty, who currently serves as South Carolina's running backs coach.
South Carolina hosted Hill for the Gamecocks' blowout win against Tennessee this past November. And that weekend strengthened the relationship between Hill and Hardesty.
“I went to the South Carolina-Tennessee game and he (Hardesty)showed me around and that really built the relationship more, seeing him in person,” said Hill last month. “He came to my school I’d say four or five times, and I’ve been up there. That’s something that really clicked for me and him, the fact that we both have been to see each other and we both communicate often.”
There's no doubt that Hardesty has a lot of love for his alma mater. In fact, he worked as a quality control coach at Tennessee in 2018 under Jeremy Pruitt. But now that he's at South Carolina, he has to recruit against the Vols. While I'm sure it's tough for him, it's part of the job.
Maybe Hardesty will find his way back to Tennessee and land on Josh Heupel's staff (if there's an opening). Either way, this is the business side of college football that can be hard for fans. Hardesty is a VFL, but he's also the enemy. And that can be tough to digest.
One thing to note, though, is that Hardesty is almost certainly not using negative recruiting tactics against Tennessee. He's simply trying to bring a player to Columbia that the Vols want. So while Hardesty is currently one of Tennessee's enemies, it's not like he's a bad guy.
