In His Own Words

On Tennessee:

"They were always my leader. I wanted to take my trip before (I committed). I looked at some other places too. When I looked at Tennessee; that was the place I wanted to be. I felt the most comfortable with their players compared to other trips."

"My uncle was a Tennessee graduate. I just grew up being a Tennessee fan. I even like "Rocky Top" now and again."

On other finalist, Auburn:

"I was basically looking at Auburn because I had a chance to play early. When they had their winning season, I wanted to look at them."

On UT relationships:

"(UT Defensive tackle) Coach (Dan) Brooks kept telling me about his system, his rotation, and where I would fit it. When I was hanging around with players, it was exciting."

"They had other commitments there (on last weekend’s official visit) like my (Memphis East High School) teammate Malcolm Rawls, I got to meet (Antioch TB) LaMarcus Coker and (Smyrna DB) Marsalous Johnson. They told me why they committed.

"It was the best trip. I enjoyed myself up there. Tennessee came out on top."

On UT recruiting the state:

"Most of their commitments are from Tennessee and they have the top recruiting class in the nation. That should tell you something about the state."

On teammate, and UT commitment, Malcolm Rawls:

"It’s good to have somebody up there I know already. It might even be just like high school. I’ll see him everyday and we’ll probably take classes together. It’s good to know you’ll have somebody there when you’re that far from home."

"(In the beginning), Tennessee and Memphis were the only two places we were thinking about going. As it went on and on, we were thinking Tennessee is where we should go. In practice, going against each other, it’s going to be fun."

On playing offense in college:

"I didn’t want to play offense. Michigan and Michigan State were trying to get me to commit to play guard."