Tennessee appears to be the main threat to flip 2027 five-star EDGE DJ Jacobs from Ohio State.

The Georgia native has been committed to the Buckeyes for almost a year, but the Vols have continued to recruit him.

Miami and Georgia are also in the mix for Jacobs, but Tennessee is Ohio State’s top competition in this battle.

“Tennessee’s right there in the thick of it,” said VolQuest’s Austin Price on WNML’s Josh and Swain on Wednesday. “I think this is a very open recruitment. Ohio State has invested quite a bit in him from the jump. They’re trying to hold on to him. They’re swinging big to try to make sure they can hold on to him.

“Tennessee and Miami are trying to flip the script on the Buckeyes. So I don’t think that it’s set in stone one way or the other at this point for anybody. And again, Ohio State is the school that he’s been to the most, and it’s the school that he’s been committed to for a while, but I think he is very much open to the possibility of not playing in Columbus if the mood strikes.”

Tennessee has a couple of things working in their favor in this recruiting battle. For one, Jacobs’ father is extremely close with Vols defensive line coach Rodney Garner (Garner was Jacobs’ father’s position coach at Georgia a couple of decades ago).

Secondly, Tennessee is an Adidas school and Jacobs signed an NIL deal with Adidas earlier this year.

Ohio State and Georgia are already with Nike, and Miami is set to move from Adidas to Nike in 2027. Adidas could help Tennessee push this to the finish line. Nike, meanwhile, likely won’t get involved (Nike didn’t offer any help to Ohio State in the David Gabriel Georges battle).

Jacobs is expected to return to Knoxville for Tennessee’s game against LSU in two weeks. If the Vols are going to make a move (the early signing period is just a couple of weeks later), it’ll likely need to happen that weekend.