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The 6’1 speedster is closely monitoring the hot seat status of Butch Jones.
IMMOKALEE, Fla. — Without its QB due to injury, Ft. Myers (Fla.) Dunbar High School took a tough district loss to Naples (Fla.) Immokalee Tuesday night, 30-23, in a game that was rescheduled to a Tuesday due to Hurricane Irma.
Afterwards, senior receiver Shocky Jacques-Louis, a Tennessee commit, addressed the team, saying he was proud of their effort, and that they needed to keep grinding for a rematch against Immokalee in the playoffs. He had three catches for 50 yards on the night as Dunbar was forced to use a receiver as a replacement QB.
Following his speech, the three-star receiver spoke about his recruitment.
“To be honest, I’m still committed to Tennessee, but I am definitely looking at other options due to, uh, certain situations at Tennessee,” Jacques-Louis said.
“The situation” is head coach Butch Jones being squarely on the hot seat after a 3-3 start to the season. Jones is 14-21 in SEC play as Tennessee’s head coach.
“Coach [Butch] Jones, I love him to death, but I’d be a fool to go there and he’ll just end up missing, ya know?”
Tennessee currently has the No. 6 recruiting class per the 247Sports composite, but much of it is on shaky ground, with players decommitting or re-opening their recruitment in recent weeks.
Like many prospects in southwest Florida, Jacques-Louis has a great relationship with Vols’ offensive coordinator Larry Scott, who has recruited the area for years, along with receivers coach Kevin Beard. Jacques-Louis said it’s safe to say that if Scott is still at Tennessee, he’ll be sticking with the Volunteers.
“Yes, of course,” the 6’1, 175-pound speedster agreed, acknowledging Scott is a key piece to his Tennessee recruitment.
Another reason Tennessee remains strong with Jacques-Louis is his good friend and former Dunbar teammate Shanon Reid, a three-star linebacker who signed with the Volunteers in the 2017 class.
“I talk to Shanon all the time,” he said. “He’s one of the major reasons I want to go to Tennessee.”
As a prospect with good grades, Jacques-Louis plans to sign early with the new early Signing Period, and enroll in time for the spring semester. But he won’t sign with Tennessee unless the coaching situation is cemented.
“No, because I talked to multiple people about their situation, how they went to college and thought the coach was going to be there, and the whole thing flipped on them, and they were left playing on the bench, trying to be a practice hero.”
If Tennessee’s situation is not by the time it comes to sign, the playmaker will take his talents elsewhere.
Jacues-Louis recently took an official visit to Michigan on Oct. 7.
“Michigan was lovely,” he said of his recent visit. “I didn’t know it was a committable offer, but Coach [Jim] Harbaugh made it very sure that it was a committable offer. I had plenty of fun, and coach Harbaugh is a really cool due.”
But Kentucky, where he visited on Oct. 23, is recruiting him the hardest.
Jacques-Louis has a strong relationship with coach Darin Henshaw, and was committed to the program between April and June 2017. Hinshaw came to see Jacques-Louis play last week, when Kentucky was off with a bye.
“I’ve always loved Kentucky because they’re the first ones that seen me,” he said. “I went up there, it was still that same love. That’s why I have to show them that respect and keep them in the mix, because they’ve always kept me in the mix.
Jacques-Louis plans to also visit Pitt and Missouri, but is not sure of the dates of those visits.