‘Tennessee was not really an option’ – How a former Vols player from 1998 championship team helped UT land a key 4-star recruit
A Tennessee Vols true freshman who signed with the program as a four-star recruit during the 2025 recruiting cycle may not have ended up on Rocky Top if not for a VFL from the 1998 championship team. Vols true freshman offensive lineman Nic Moore recently joined the NO PLAYBOOK Podcast and he revealed how his […]
A Tennessee Vols true freshman who signed with the program as a four-star recruit during the 2025 recruiting cycle may not have ended up on Rocky Top if not for a VFL from the 1998 championship team.
Vols true freshman offensive lineman Nic Moore recently joined the NO PLAYBOOK Podcast and he revealed how his high school football coach Spencer Riley helped nudge him toward Tennessee.
Riley, the head coach at Jefferson High School in Dandridge, TN, was an offensive lineman at Tennessee from 1995 to 1999.
Moore was on the verge of committing to West Virginia until Riley stepped in and convinced the four-star recruit to take his official visit to Tennessee.
“I was not a huge Tennessee fan growing up,” said Moore. “I wasn’t really interested in seeing them. I wasn’t recruited early by them. I was like, ok, whatever, Tennessee’s not really an option, keep moving on. But as time went on, funny enough, my head coach was a UT alumni who was the center in 98 when they won the national championship, Spencer Riley. So he was always kind of voicing that he wanted me to go to UT.
“And then out of nowhere, these little UT signs just started popping up out of nowhere. Right behind our high school field, there was this barn that said, ‘Everywhere you look, UT’ — just right behind [the field], just subliminal messaging. And as time went on, I started narrowing down to a couple schools. Tennessee gave me an offer after a little bit…and then I got to my official visit. So where I was originally about to commit to West Virginia, I was about to cancel my official visit with Tennessee and commit to West Virginia and just be there and play defensive line and be happy. But like I was saying, all of those signs kind of got me to say, you know what, maybe I should take this last official visit. And my coach, I told him I was about to commit (to West Virginia) that day. He drove to my house and was like, ‘Take your official visit to Tennessee, please. If you don’t like it, you don’t like it, but if you do like it, this will be your new home.’”
“The messaging kind of got to me and the coach got to me,” continued Moore. “I was like, you know what, maybe it’s just time to take the official visit to Tennessee. I got here, and it was just like an overwhelming majority of people with welcoming arms — it was just like a family environment that I really liked, and I felt like I connected well with a lot of the players and the scheme. Just everything about Tennessee seemed like home, and especially since I was right down the road from Tennessee. It was like it almost seemed like a no brainer, because I’d be like a hometown hero with people who actually cared about me here, and it wasn’t just to go here and play ball. It was more than that. It was more like a family that actually cared about you before and after football.”
Nearly 30 years after helping lead the Vols to a national championship, Spencer Riley is still giving his all for Tennessee.
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