Jennings could play safety or quarterback for the Volunteers.
Tennessee received good news Monday with the commitment of Jauan Jennings. Out of Murfreesboro (Tenn.) Blackmon, Jennings held many of the big offers in the South, including Alabama, Auburn, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss and some national offers as well.
Jennings is a consensus four-star recruit and is widely considered one of the 200 best players in the 2015 recruiting class. He comes in at 6'3 and 190 pounds, and doesn't turn 17 years old until later in the summer, meaning he is age-appropriate for his grade and has potential for additional growth.
Experts disagree on Jennings' ultimate position. Most see him as an excellent safety, but at a school like Tennessee, which is placing a huge emphasis on quarterback mobility in its recruiting, the possibility of him sticking as a quarterback is quite real.
Jennings does not have the biggest arm, the most accurate ball or the cleanest mechanics, but combined with his excellent running, he throws the ball at an acceptable level for a running college quarterback. If he sticks at quarterback, Tennessee can use him in ways similar to those in which Auburn used Nick Marshall.
Jennings represents a solid backup plan at quarterback for the Volunteers, as they continue to chase Torrance Gibson, the five-star athlete from Florida who is more raw as a quarterback than Jennings, but who also has a higher overall ceiling at the position.
If Tennessee does somehow land Gibson (competition is quite fierce, and Ohio State is seemingly in as good or better position than Tennessee), the Volunteers can simply move him to safety, where he profiles as a player who can play center field with plenty of range.
The Volunteers now have a class of 10 recruits for the 2015 cycle, with four of them rating as four-stars or better on the 247Sports Composite. That's a great start to a class that will attempt to follow up the tremendous job done by coach Butch Jones in the 2014 class, in which Tennessee managed to sign 33 players, including 16 rated four-stars.