Flights landing Top247 LB Arion Carter “great for us as a program”

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Arion Carter became one of Tennessee’s top targets this fall after receiving scholarship offers from more than 20 schools in the final months of his recruiting. He became even more important to the Vols once Tennessee coach Josh Heupel got to know him better.

Carter, a Top247 linebacker from Smyrna (Tenn.) High School, ended up picking the Vols over Alabama and Ohio State on Dec. 14, giving Tennessee one of its biggest recruiting wins from the race leading up to Early Signing Day. He joined the Vols last week to begin participating in their on-campus bowl practices, and Tennessee officially announced Carter’s addition on Wednesday.

Heupel said at his Early Signing Day press conference that the 6-foot-1, 215-pound Carter impressed him as a “super-athletic, smart, and competitive player” who also happens to be “one of the toughest guys around.” more mature than I went through the process with. It’s one of the reasons Heupel said Carter’s landing “is important to us as a program.”

Heupel said Carter, who won Tennessee’s Class 6A Mr. Football award earlier this month, caught his eye with “just what he was looking for, questions he asked every time we had a conversation”. His combination of size, athleticism and intelligence – both on and off the court – made him a coveted target for Tennessee, Alabama, Ohio State and others this fall. .

“He pays attention to detail,” Heupel said of Carter, who is ranked No. 158 overall and No. 13 linebacker in the 2023 class and Tennessee State’s No. 2 player, according to 247Sports. Industry-generated composite.

“You can notice that from the questions he asks about a previous game we played, (and) also how he prepared for the games he was going to play.”

Beating Alabama, which was widely considered the favorite to land Carter for more than two months, was a major recruiting victory for Tennessee. Heupel said the linebacker position “is somewhere where we had to add a bunch of guys, just deep.” Carter is one of three linebackers in the Vols’ class of 2023, along with four-star Jalen Smith of Loganville, Ga., and Jeremiah Telander of Gainesville, Ga.

Tennessee landed seven players from Tennessee State in the Class of 2023, including the state’s two top prospects: Carter and four-star rusher Caleb Herring, a top 100 prospect at Riverdale High School in Murfreesboro, Tennessee Herring , who is the younger brother of Vols freshman linebacker Elijah Herring, remains the No. 1 player in the state.

Tennessee has several other highly ranked players in its class, which is currently ranked No. 9 nationally in the 247Sports Composite team rankings. But the Vols passing the Crimson Tide earlier this month to land Carter stood apart from Heupel.

“I’m proud of Arion’s recruitment,” Heupel said. “It was important for us as a program. But just in the state too, to get two of the best players in the state – guys who can help us for a long time.

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