Can Tennessee hold on to commitment from sleeper WR recruit Jordan Young?

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How can someone so talented go unnoticed in the state of Georgia?

Update 2/4

FSU did convince Young to take the visit to Tallahassee. His mother accompanied him on the visit, and Young changed his Twitter bio from “Wide Receiver at The University of Tennessee” to “Wide Receiver at The Florida State University.” That’s not an official confirmation of a flip, however, especially not since Young really seems to enjoy having fun on social media. It’s also not uncommon for other recruits to play pranks on one another and change their social media.

Update 1/31

Schools have not given up on flipping Jordan Young from Tennessee.

Florida State will be visiting Wednesday, with the hope that it can lock in a visit for the final weekend before National Signing Day. Young has not taken any other visits since visiting and subsequently visiting Tennessee. This is an interesting battle as a lot of the new Tennessee staff (Jeremy Pruitt, Charles Kelly, Tino Sunseri) have ties to FSU. Tennessee will visit after, presumably with the hopes of getting Young to shut down his recruiting process.

Update 1/19

Since this article’s publishing, several other schools have reached out to inquire about Young, including Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Illinois and Virginia. Tennessee sources believe he will commit to the Volunteers soon, since they were the first to reach out and host him on a visit. (Young did commit to Tennessee).

Original Story

The second-highest high school athletics classification in Georgia is 6A. The 6A state champion in the 100M hurdles is 6’3 and 185 pounds and lives within 30 minutes of Atlanta.

As a senior, he caught 66 balls for 1,562 yards and 17 touchdowns and made Second-Team All-Georgia in the fourth-most talented state in the country for high school football talent.

And watching his film, it is clear he is not just a track guy — he is straight Mossing opponents:

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As of Sunday, Jordan Young had zero Power 5 offers.

Several DII schools were on him, and his 247Sports recruiting profile showed an offer from Coastal Carolina.

That changed Monday when the University of Tennessee offered him. 247Sports found out, apparently watched his film, and he went from unrated to the No. 192 player in the nation.

But how in the heck did a player with those measurables, production, and film fall through the cracks? To find out, I spoke with college coaches in Georgia and the Southeast who were recruiting him, on the condition of anonymity because it is an NCAA violation for coaches to publicize prospects.

Young’s senior year was nothing like his previous seasons

“He came out of nowhere,” an FBS coach said. “This just doesn’t happen. He is a f***ing freak and I can’t believe we didn’t know about him. At least he’s going to go big time and not to a competitor.”

Young went from catching 23 balls for 276 yards and one touchdown as a junior to an incredible 66 catches for 1,560 yards and 17 touchdowns as a senior. It’s a remarkable turnaround.

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“He didn’t play much or put up numbers before this year,” a coach said.

Young’s highlights as a junior aren’t bad, they just aren’t special. Plus, there are not that many of them. As a senior, though, he seems to have put it all together.

Everyone matures at a different time. It could be that Young didn’t really come into his own until his senior season. The numbers certainly suggest so. And he does look like a different player as a senior.

Another coach shared that typically with a player this good, his coach or community will be calling coaching staffs to hype him up, but the coach didn’t hear much about him. Neither did local scouting services.

Why some lesser schools thought they had a shot

Other coaches expressed that they thought they had a shot because they weren’t sure what track his academic profile would take. Schools at lower levels can accept partial qualifiers. But an FBS coach told me that Young is “totally fine, good to go,” and said that he had an impressive test score. That killed the hopes of smaller schools and opened doors for Young.