"When I received a text saying Tennessee had a new defensive line coach," Emerson said. "I was like what happened to coach Strip? and I found out he was still there, but not teaching defensive line. I went to Google and started doing research on him and found out he had been at Michigan and Oregon."
That revelation was followed by Hoke reaching out to Emerson with some solid discussions. "It's been going great," Emerson said. "I spoke to coach Hoke a few days ago and he was real impressed by my film and told me he was really excited to have an in-state player like myself. He was a really nice guy. He was excited to hurry up and get me on up there."
Emerson has ACT testing this coming Saturday meaning he can't attend Tennessee's first junior day. Instead he will be in Knoxville for the second junior day on March 4th.
"He told me he wants me to enjoy the recruiting process," Emerson said. "I'm pretty sure he wants me to come up there with him. He wants me to sit back and relax and take it all in. I told him when I come up there, I'm going to chill with him. That's most definitely something I'm going to do when I come up in a few weeks."
"To me the coaching staff, the city, the community are all great and it's a great place to be," Emerson said. "Especially on game days. There are a lot of things to like about it besides the peanut butter (laughs). Other than that, everything else is good."