“It kind of met up to my expectations a little bit,” said Riley, who’s ranked the No. 293 overall prospect and No. 24 outside linebacker in the 2020 class, according to the industry-generated 247Sports Composite.
“Going into the visit, I wasn’t expecting most of the stuff — like, the campus, all the facilities and stuff they had. It kind of met up to my expectations. Everything was pretty good.
“Everything stuck out to me a lot.”
Riley, who has received offers from at least 30 schools, said he “will” visit Tennessee again, although it “might be this summer” before he makes it back there.
He said he spent several hours at Tennessee during Thursday’s visit, which allowed him to meet with coach
Jeremy Pruitt and multiple members of the Vols’ staff — including new defensive coordinator
Derrick Ansley — in addition to seeing their seventh spring practice.
Everything Riley saw and heard, he said, convinced him that Tennessee is “headed in the right direction” under Pruitt.
“I feel like this season could actually go great, with the way they’re going now and how I saw their practice (Thursday),” Riley said. “What they say they want done is going to get done. They’re always staying on top of their game and stuff.”
Riley said Ansley spent the most time with him among the Vols’ coaches.
“They were just saying that they have to get me up there a little bit more often,” Riley said. “They want to show me how close this relationship can actually become.
They want me to feel like family. They want to start getting me up there more so I can spend more time with them and build a really close relationship.”
Ansley told Riley, he said, that he “can play either safety or outside linebacker” in Tennessee’s 3-4 base defense. He said the Vols like that he’s “able to pass rush.”
Most of the teams recruiting him value his versatility, he said, and often “ask me what I see myself playing.”
“And I tell them that I’ll play whatever,” Riley added. "Wherever they see me fit, I’ll play that position, (whether) it’s linebacker or safety.”
But Riley added that he “would prefer to play outside ‘backer.”
Pruitt also talked with Riley during the visit. Riley said Pruitt was familiar with him from his previous stint at Alabama, where he served as the Crimson Tide’s defensive coordinator in 2016-17.
“I talked to him after practice,” Riley said of Pruitt. “He was just glad to see me again. The last time he had seen me was when he had visited down (at my school). I was in the ninth grade and he was at ‘Bama. He said I was a young cat then.”
Riley said Auburn, Oklahoma, LSU and Texas A&M are the schools currently recruiting him hardest among the teams that have extended offers to him.
