Former Vols football commit officially lands with one of Tennessee’s biggest rivals
A former Tennessee Volunteers football commit officially landed with one of UT’s biggest SEC rivals on Monday.
A former Tennessee Vols football commit landed with one of the program’s biggest SEC rivals on Monday.
2027 three-star cornerback Kamauri Whitfield was committed to Tennessee for four months before decommitting in February.
Whitfield, who is rated by 247Sports as the No. 48 cornerback in the nation, decommitted because of the defensive coaching staff changes the Vols made this offseason.
“I have decommitted from Tennessee,” said Whitfield to Rivals in February. “The guys I had relationships with are no longer there. That was the biggest reason for my decommitment. They made a lot of changes with the defensive staff.”
The Vols moved on from defensive coordinator Tim Banks and cornerbacks coach Willie Martinez earlier this offseason.
On Monday, Whitfield committed to the Florida Gators.
“They just kept pushing from day one, even when I was committed to Tennessee,” said Whitfield to Rivals. “Florida wanted me. They talked to me a lot, they always reached out to me and the coaches made sure I felt like a top priority.”
This is a move that was expected for a while, so it certainly didn’t come as a surprise.
Ultimately, you can’t land every recruit. And Tennessee’s new defensive coaching staff just didn’t seem interested in prioritizing Whitfield. That doesn’t mean Whitfield isn’t a good player — he could certainly end up being a star in the SEC (we’ll just have to wait to see) — he just simply didn’t fit new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles’ vision.