On Friday afternoon, Halls junior safety
Jarrell Chandler made the 20 minute trip over from the Halls Crossroads to Tennessee’s campus. He got to meet new defensive coordinator
Jim Knowles and he left impressed.
“It was good to meet Coach Knowles today. He is a very smart guy with a good resume,” Chandler said of his impression of Knowles. “He obviously knows what he is doing. He has developed multiple guys and has won at every level in different conferences. He has brought in a pretty good set of guys to help build this defense back up. That is definitely something will help me make my decision to where I go, is the people coaching me up and around me, and Tennessee definitely has those people here.”
He watched film for over an hour with Knowles. He saw what Knowles wants out of his safety play and how his game would translate.
“It was super good to actually talk to a coach that can show me what I can work on,” Chandler said of what his takeaway was from watching film with Knowles. “Not just him telling me I was the greatest player, but he actually just coached me up on some things, so it was good.”
Knowles is rather stoic in front of cameras but several players have told
Volquest, he flashes a personality behind the scenes.
“He was kind, nice, and intelligent,” Chandler said “He was a straightforward guy.”
He was accompanied by his head coach
Brent Hughes on the visit. Chandler said this definitely gave the Vols a boost for him.
“It definitely does help things, just showing that there is true, genuine interest because they brought me over for an unofficial visit after Coach Heupel came to the school. They followed it up with it and let me meet their new staff.”
Chandler has been offered by Georgia and Florida recently. He is seeing more and more traction.
Josh Heupel was by to see him earlier in the week.
“Just that he came to really just check up on me and show that he really cares,” Chandler said of what it meant for Heupel to stop by Halls High School to check on him earlier in the week. “He is the head coach and he shows up to my high school. I would definitely say our relationship is starting grow as we continue to communicate.”
So where is he at in the process?
“Right now, I am just kind of starting to really narrow down the schools. There is a lot of traffic with these other schools coming in. I am just trying to keep my priorities to who is going to develop me, and the type of program they are.”
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