Tennessee won’t have to worry about any walls surrounding the border of Alabama as it recruits William Ming.
The defensive end from Athens (Ala.) High School has received scholarship offers from 16 schools, including UT, Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Georgia, Notre Dame and Florida State.
The 6-foot-4, 250-pound Ming attended UT’s junior day on March 1. He has also taken visits to Alabama, Notre Dame and LSU.
Ming said his trip to UT was as good as any visit he’s taken.
“Everything was extremely nice,” he said of UT’s campus. “I thought their indoor facilities were probably the nicest I’ve seen. Of course (Neyland Stadium) stands out because it’s just huge.”
Ming said he’s kept in touch with UT defensive end Wes Brown, who graduated from Athens in 2005.
Ming said he can reach out to Brown if he ever has any questions about the Vols.
“All he has is compliments for the coaches,” Ming said of his talks with Brown. “I’ll e-mail him and ask him questions and stuff. He just says their coaches are great.”
Ming said he was able to spend time with UT coach Phillip Fulmer and defensive ends coach Steve Caldwell during junior day.
Ming said UT’s coaches told him his position is a high priority in the 2009 class. That’s a factor Ming will consider in his decision.
“That would definitely be a top thing to be able to get to play early,” he said.
Another factor for Ming will be proximity.
He said he wants to play close to home so his parents will be able to travel to his games.
Ming said that gives UT another advantage.
“That’s one of the things that will help them,” he said. “Knoxville is only about four hours away. You can drive right up the interstate.”
Ming has grown up an Alabama fan, but he said neither the Tide nor Auburn will have an advantage just because they’re in-state schools.
Ming said he will consider the job being done by Alabama coach Nick Saban, who Ming believes can add to the Tide’s already rich tradition.
“I think he’s a great coach and he’s doing good things to make them rise,” Ming said.
Ming said he plans to attend Alabama’s spring game Saturday and UT’s Orange and White Game on April 19.
Vanderbilt 93, Tennessee 79, Feb. 9…
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Comments » 36
smashmouth98 writes:
come up to knoxville we need you and you have the opportunity to play early!! Go VOLS
vtvol#210290 writes:
Come to UT. Fulmer will shoot you straight. That's something the liar in Tuscaloosa will never be able to do.
nicksjuzunk#646117 writes:
Ca-ching! Keep on workin' coaches!!
Go_Joe_Bruin writes:
See ya' at the Rosebowl. Don't be fooled, we have a great non-conference home record, so our Bruins will show up.
nicksjuzunk#646117 writes:
Go_Joe_Bruin,
Welcome to the party. Pretty random place for you to post but oh well. What's the mood around UCLA about now? Are they feeling pretty good about next year or do they think they are two or three years away from making noise?
utfpmd writes:
Come to Tennessee and begin the Ming dynasty!
Emphasis on nasty, let's get some Al Wilson like attitude back on defense.
GreerVol22 writes:
bamacheats, clever dude.
HotlantaVol writes:
Ming, don't be a Tuscaloser. Come to K'ville. Ming it on, baby!!
pdhuff#552644 writes:
Fulmer vs Satan. For Ming. Stay tuned.
DadwasaVol writes:
Bring it to Knoxville, dude. The situation here isn't as bad as these posters portray it to be.
AllVol writes:
What's your SEC home record? Add one resounding loss to it.
VenomousVol writes:
It will be near impossible to pry this kid out of Saban's clutches if he truly wants him. The pressure in Alabamastan is immense to stay home and play for the Tide, memory of the Bahr and $$$$.
pdhuff#552644 writes:
VenomousVol 10:54 - Dead on, people can say what they want to about Saban, but he is proving to be a tireless and effective recruiter. He is closing off Alabama much as R. Garner closed off Georgia. Once fertile fields are now barren, nearly.
The ante on recruiting has doubled in the last 5-6 years.
Brama writes:
I have talked to someone who knows his family & they say TN is a long shot. So don't expect to pull him from Alabama.
abnermc writes:
Is this like bear times when he would pile up All Americans on the bench? How many so-called top picks can play @ one time?Surely they realize they can't all play.LOL
easton3 writes:
1st: This Saban is a liar thing is getting old. Many, many coaches have done the same thing(almost every year). The media took off with it because it was a NC winning coach(Saban) and ALabama. Petrino did way worse this year to the Falcons.
2nd: Alabama cheated. They have paid for it for 15 years and trust me, UT was one of the teams that got the biggest gain from it. We paid our price and those days are about to be over....better get used to it.
3rd: Forget about William Ming...ain't gonna happen. UT should worry about some of the very few awesome prospects that you have in-state like CB Eric Gordon and OT Austin Long. From what I hear from Andrew Bone, scout for Scout.com, Gordon and Long are very HIGH on Alabama.
ROLL TIDE !!!!
thesavageorange writes:
sjt18 ,I agree w/ Brama too.I've heard the same thing he heard.It would be like pulling an OSU family's son to Michigan.We are going to have the same problem w/ Davenport out of LA.
I think our best shots at DT are Darrington Sentimore out of LA,Dallas Lee out of GA,and Daniel Hood K'Ville.
thesavageorange writes:
easton3 ,A-lot of what you say is true.The reason I think most people bring it up, over and over, is b/c Bama fans come on here and blame UT for them breaking the rules.On Long and Gordon, I thing both are like Ming, just enjoying the process.I've said it before and I'll say it again, if I were getting the red carpet treatment,and hitting all of the different cities having a blast, I would take all of my visits tooEven though I knew all along I was a Vol.
straightshooter writes:
Yep, this fellow is likely a Saban recruit, just enjoying the limelight, praise and catering to he gets as he takes visits. Not much great talent leaves bama these days. With a smooth double talker like Saban at the state's home university with all its past history to pull off of, Fulmer being an informant to the NCAA of bama's illegal recruiting pratices still huge on their minds, bama is pretty much gone for UT to recruit in. What UT needs to do is work harder at keeping what few good blue chip recruits it has in state at home. And to work harder in North Carolina and South Carolina where they lost some solid prospects this past year which in previous years they had scooped up early on. And Florida with more talent than any state except possibly California, should also be a high priority.
GreerVol22 writes:
Kingsport, Ainge likes Chinease food. His favorite dish is ....tho-wong-man.
Bigger_Al writes:
I guess I'm just gonna have to say it.
I'm not going to be the Alabama coach.
orangebloodgmc writes:
Hell, Saban won't be at Bama by then, any way. The only other liar as bad as him would be Tuberville, when at Ole Miss, "I am not talking to anybody about going any where else," and a week later he was at Auburn. But, if your world is only UA and AU, I could see how you would say, "Everybody does it." Ming, you better get everything in writing and notarized!
easton3 writes:
Bigger_Al....What would you expect him to say while he is coaching another team? Yeah, I'm leaving the losers behind to take the Bama job.
By the way, Saban turned down the Bama job and Bama offered it to Rich Rodriguez and he came real close to accepting it. They went back to Saban after the NFL season and he had changed his mind. What's the big deal? He sure didn't leave his team high and dry in the middle of the season like Petrino did. Saban had about a month and a half to recruit for Bama that year....he showed his loyalty to Miami, not Alabama. You have seen what he can do with a whole year to recruit. Petrino showed his loyalty to Arkansas, not the team that was paying his salary.
As far as Long and Gordon go, Andrew Bone has talked to them both and he said Alabama is in the lead for both of them. Long is a fan of Alabama and I think I read that in an article on this site.
ROLL TIDE !!!!
thesavageorange writes:
sjt18 ,The ony team offering Gordon outside of the south at this point is Oklahoma.For long it's Michigan.Official visits are paid for ,but unofficials aren't.If they wanted to go to USC,Hawaii etc...it would be at their expense.
2 days ago Long said on rivals.com that he didn't have an early favorite.He is friends w/ Barrett jones and I think Bama has as good of a shot as anyone.
thesavageorange writes:
sjt18 ,You talking about Andre Harris, the 6'4 342lb G out of Hamton GA?I like him a-lot too.The guy I would probably like to get the most is Morgan Moses the 6'7 332lbs tackle from VA.He has known Scott and Clawson for a few yr's, so hopefully that will help.
GreerVol22 writes:
mcbrim,
looks like a lot of fun. Unfortunately, with ESPN and UT, its bad news or no news. Heck, they even dressed up a former lady vol basketball player in Cardinal red and had her pick Stanford to beat UT in the National Champ game Tuesday.
Anyway, have fun with Corso and the lovefest. Maybe I'll tune in to see Kirk and Tebow play "pitch" and "catch".
easton3 writes:
No kidding GreerVol22.
ESPN made fun of the 92,000 Alabama fans that showed up for the A-day game last year. Now they are covering the Florida spring game....what gives?
ESPN, the most biased sports journalists there are.
ROLL TIDE !!!!
pdhuff#552644 writes:
sjt18- thks for the memory. One of my top 3 all-time Vols, Tee Martin. I believe he was from the projects in Mobile. What a gamer!
Kills Big Fletch who is a Peyton man when I ask him who wears the ring. For those of you who have forgoten nearly 10 years ago, Tee took us to the promised land. What a strider.
Speaking of recruiting bases, we're getting hemmed in all across the South. We need inroads into Pa, Va and Maryland. Texas would be huge.
Go_Joe_Bruin writes:
nicksjuzunk,
The Bruin fans are pretty excited that we have pretty good coaches now, and our best recruiting class in several years. However, we still do not have a proven QB, and most of our starters are gone.
There will be about 8 of us going to your home turf in 2009.
JWilly writes:
Personally, I am worried more about Auburn and Florida as early season games (I'm not very worried about UCLA)than I am about early recruiting maybe's. The Vols lose those two SEC games and the season is in the crapper before October. Then what happens to recruiting (see 2007 recruiting)?
skinalive#242458 writes:
Saban's gonna leave a bunch of recruits high and dry in a year or two when another of his "dream" jobs comes open.
How can anyone take his commitment to being a long-term coach at Obama seriously?
abnermc writes:
Mcbrim,ESPN wanted to be w/ Gators in Atl. but couldn't find meyer there in Dec. Next best thing is spring game I guess.
easton3 writes:
Saban has had 4 Head coaching jobs including the NFL job. Lots of college coaches try the NFL and then decide they would rather be in college coaching.
There was just a big article in one of the Alabama newspapers where he was interviewed, and he said his wife and family were happy and he wanted to end his career at the University of Alabama.
I understand how this might scare you....it should, but don't be a schmuck and believe all the biased media hype. Do some research. Wayne H., owner of the Miami Dolphins said he begged Saban to leave LSU and coach the Dolphins. Wayne H. said that Saban told him if he wanted him to stay with the Dolphins, he would. Saban's wife and family were not happy in Miami. Why would Wayne H. take up for him if that wasn't true? Arthur Blank(Atlanta Falcons owner) sure is heck didn't say any type of stuff like that when Petrino left.
He's not the liar you goofs keep saying he is, and frankly, it makes you look stupid. Do your homework.
You got another tuff coach to deal with....deal with it.
ROLL TIDE !!!!
skinalive#242458 writes:
easton3,
This is a Vol board. We friggin' hate 'Bama. It makes you look stupid to post on here and cry about a team we hate and try to make us see some good in them or their coach.
Saban is an opportunist. Period.
Of course we know that most people would prefer living in Tuscaloosa, AL over Miami, FL. Who's the idiot? Sounds like Saban's wife is the idiot.
easton3 writes:
I live in Tn. This article is about an Alabama kid.
By the way, An Alabama kid you will not get.
You are the one that sounds like an idiot. He is a great coach, that is the only evidence anybody has.
You don't know if he is an opportunist or any other thing. All I said was look at the facts, something of which I guess you refuse to do.
You saw all you needed to see on the box with the colors where the people talk to ya.
ROLL TIDE !!!!
SmokeDog72 writes:
I have a favorite Chinese joke......
How do you say constipation in Chinese?
"Hung Chow"
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