James Green didn't hesitate when he was offered a scholarship by Tennessee football coach Lane Kiffin.
Green, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound receiver from Leon High School in Tallahassee, Fla., committed to the Vols during a phone conversation with Kiffin on Monday.
"He told me all the stuff about how I could contribute as a freshman for Tennessee," said Green, who chose UT over South Florida, Florida and Ole Miss. "It just felt good to hear that from a head coach."
It's good for UT to add another commitment to its 2009 class.
Since Kiffin took over for Phillip Fulmer earlier this month, UT has picked up commitments from Hillsboro cornerback Eric Gordon and defensive lineman Arthur Jeffery Jr. from Booker High School in Sarasota, Fla. Kiffin also has convinced two formerly committed junior college prospects, Alcoa defensive end Rae Sykes and defensive tackle Jonathan Hollins from Baton Rouge, La., to re-sign with UT. Each did last week.
Green said Kiffin is trying to lead the Vols back to a championship level.
"I guess he's just trying to build it up, turn a rock into a building," Green said. "He's trying to help Tennessee get back to where they were.
"He told me they're going to have a good recruiting class. He said this recruiting class is going to be the one to change it."
Green said part of that change is adding size to UT's receiving corps.
Green said he has the size that Kiffin wants in a receiver.
"He was like, they have good receivers but some of them lack size and speed," Green said. "I bring all that to the table."
Leon head coach Bill Ragans said Green also brings versatility.
Ragans said Green's size and speed allows him to be a reliable all-around receiver.
"In the SEC he'll have a little bit of an added advantage to start with," Ragans said. "He'll already be big enough to come in and play if they need him to."
Green also will have a family member to lean on if he needs advice. Green's uncle, Lamont Green, played linebacker at Florida State 1995-98.
"He just gets me ready," said Green, who plans to visit UT on Jan. 23. "I'll be waiting and ready when I get there."
Green also will be ready to show Florida State that it missed out on a hometown prospect.
"Even though Florida State didn't offer me," he said, "I always said in the back of my head whenever I play Florida State in a game I'm always going to let them know what they missed out on."
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Comments » 186
cainclifton23 writes:
1st
Kiffin_fan writes:
I have been saying give Kiff a little time and he will be all we could ask for ... Go Vols....
cainclifton23 writes:
"Our wr's are lacking size and speed"
maybe thats why our Qb's played so bad... the Wr's could never get open!
I always knew crompton was the man! :]
1vol writes:
good info. but how about something on letting the three assistance go?
asleep#212036 writes:
Yeah - bigger, faster receivers would have just been that much further down the field when Crompton threw it in the dirt.
cainclifton23 writes:
...the saints are not going to let ogeron get away easily.
and the guy Mark Jackson, that raiders coach tom cable fired, could be joining our staff...
cainclifton23 writes:
In response to Cregg's resignation, Cable called in former Kiffin loyalists Mark Jackson and Stephen Reaves — Kiffin's brother-in-law — and fired them Monday morning. Jackson was the director of football development, and Reaves was an office assistant.
He then addressed the situation at a team meeting and polled the remaining coaches to see if they had any intention of following Kiffin to Knoxville. Special teams coach Brian Schneider and tight ends coach Kelly Skipper coached with Kiffin in college. No other Raiders coach expressed a desire to join Kiffin
----------------------------------------
Besides stephan reaves, those 3 are probably going to join our staff
CoverOrange writes:
Do we really need Orgeron? Seems we're stacked with recruiters we need coaches. Why in the heck would Orgeron leave the NFL for an assistant's position in college? (Unless he is positioned to take over for Monte when he retires).
cainclifton23 writes:
I was thinking he will mentor under MOnte for 3? years until he retires, then take over the Dcoord.
GoonSquad writes:
Does anyone else find it absolutely pathetic that someone waits for an article to pop up on GVX just so they can type "first"?
No one is impressed, you mega-dork.
cainclifton23 writes:
Haha? cute, Internet Tough Guy
allvol9 writes:
Awesome....just the start of the beginning of greatness!
GoonSquad writes:
Nope...not an internet "tough guy". Just pointing out that you very possibly resemble Jason Alexander in Brad Paisley's "Online" video.
Just sayin.
JMP_Vols writes:
Look forward to seeing him play next year.....as a true freshman sounds like.
And whether Florida recruited him or not, its ok either way. Florida will have their share of talent, as will we.
Go Vols!!
cainclifton23 writes:
LOL, okay.
Thats me. I guess i shouldve tried to hide more.
Sorry Goonsquad....
CoverOrange writes:
I had similar thoughts although I wonder if it will be less than 3. I would guess we will paying coordinators million+ for several years.
jturne44 writes:
half the people who posted didn't even care that we just picked up a beast of a reciever...the dude is 200 pounds already...or is that good enough for you guys?
Kiffin is the man...
jturne44 writes:
half the people who posted didn't even care that we just picked up a beast of a reciever...the dude is 200 pounds already...or is that not good enough for you guys?
Kiffin is the man...
CoverOrange writes:
This is the second article on Green. The first article has over 350 posts talking about Green. Miss a day miss a lot.
cainclifton23 writes:
Please dont tell me you think Lucas Taylor is fast?
99gator writes:
who?
florida never offered this kid. and florida state did not want him either.
i love when these kids list schools they chose one school over others for.
i don't know if ole miss or south florida offered, but, again, florida didn't.
good luck at tennessee.
cainclifton23 writes:
Haha because you know exactly who all UF offers...
PLEASE..
We dont need you to tell us what rivals says, we can do that our selves.
MrBamSeydu writes:
Our recruiting board has completely changed with Fulmer gone. No more 2* good ol boys from Stinkin Creek, TN!!
Only the best players!!! I still don't see Zach Rogers and some of the other commits doing much of anything, but they can't all be starters I guess.
99gator writes:
also.....nice to see everyone is beginning to jump on my bandwagon about the current tennessee wr corps.
also known as "who dey"
i was crucified for daring to say (before the season) that tennessee had no playmakers and that arian foster, lucas taylor, aaron rogers, josh bricoe, etc, etc, etc.....did not qualify as playmakers.
but, looks like we've come around.
pms151 writes:
The kid has not played a down yet in the SEC. Until he becomes a star all of the stars in the world do not matter. By the way what a stupid childish headline this article has.
99gator writes:
you're right.
nevermind.
florida was all over this kid and failed to close the deal.
a major coup for tennessee
cainclifton23 writes:
Thanks man.
newtonrail writes:
I don't know anything except what I read about Zack Rodgers, but Austin did well under Cutcliffe, with Ainge throwing the ball. I know Naffy hates him and all White players but that's his problem. I guess Tennessee is still working under the White quota rule that Dickey had as AD. No one could get a number but it's a fact Coaches had to give X number of Schollys to Caucasian players. I doubt Naffy knows that dirty little secret that no one will say out loud. And it used to enforced in BB also. I think Bruce is ignoring it, or Hammy quit trying to appease certain people that Dickey did.
cainclifton23 writes:
Rogers is not very good, black or white.
ctownvol writes:
So George Washington was an Arabic lap dancer? I read Abraham Lincoln was the true father of hip-hop. I'm just saying...
VolPatrick writes:
So, I'm looking at Rivals.com's ratings for the commitments thus far and I thought this was interesting and am wondering if anyone else has noticed. Our class is rated 20 overall at this moment(NOTE: This is without the inclusion of Mr. Green.) However, if you look at the average star rating over the entire class, our 3.44 is 10th overall, tied w/ Notre Dame. When you factor in Mr. Green, a solid 4*, and this will go up and perhaps put the Vols into the 8 slot. OF COURSE this is all terribly subjective, but Rivals seems to think that UT's incoming talent is pretty good.
Now, it seems that Coach Monte Kiffin's tenure at Tampa Bay might be ending as soon as next week, making him potentially available for the entire last 1.5 months of recruiting. Combine his addition with growing momentum and this might be a super class that Coach K is building. This is probably the BEST case scenario when making a coaching change. Thoughts?
ctownvol writes:
I agree.
senracjr writes:
The Gators didn't have enough money left to pay him to play there,they already spent to much.
senracjr writes:
Why don't you go play with your Gator friends.
orangesox writes:
I assume you're implying that this kid has no talent, otherwise the Great and Powerful Urb would have offered him a scholarship (which scout.com says they did, but whatever). More likely that he just doesn't fit into the system at UF.
senracjr writes:
The Gators are getting scared! LOL
Thats why they are spouting off so much on here.
SignalMtnVol writes:
http://tennessee.scout.com/a.z?s=7&am...
Schools of Interest:
School Interest Level Offer? Attended Camp? Visit Date Signed LOI?
Tennessee Verbal Yes 01/30/2009
Auburn No Interest Yes None
Florida No Interest Yes 01/23/2009
Mississippi No Interest Yes 01/09/2009
North Carolina No Interest Yes None
South Carolina No Interest Yes None
South Florida No Interest Yes 01/16/2009
Show's on Scout that he was, in fact, offered by Florida. It's all semantics now, though, so who cares who offered him?
senracjr writes:
Why don't you become a vandy fan or something,all you do is whine,we ARE NOT getting Fulmer back,give it up!
chrisw2967 writes:
your pathetic, how long was you paying for fulmers scam and from the looks from your posts you would still be willing to pay.fulmer has been lit up for the last 8 years.but the flame finally burned out.
asleep#212036 writes:
I never disagreed with you about that. It's true, at least as far as the ones Fulmer/Clawson let play, we had nobody that a defensive coordinator had to scheme around. There are some potential playmakers in the lower classes but it will all be for naught if we can't come up with the main playmaker - a QB. Crompton could have make Harvin and Demps look bad, let alone the sad-sack crew of receivers you mentioned above. Kiffin sees it and so do (now) most of the Volunteer faithful - too bad Fulmer and Clawson didn't.
asleep#212036 writes:
Good call - I noticed the same thing. The overall ranking is based not only on average stars, but also on the number of signees. When you look at the quality of player we are doing better than usual, just haven't signed enough to move up. No 5*'s yet but overall talent is better than I would have thought reading the last few weeks' worth of articles from KNS.
OdessaVol writes:
z,
who is your source? Rivals says Ohio State offered and FL did not. Scout says FL offered and Ohio State did not. Rivals has him as a 4*, Scout as a 3. Fill me in....do you have a site we can visit? I'm sure as a 4* he can play a little volleyball as well. Who is legit here z? Rivals or Scout or neither or both or just you.
OdessaVol writes:
who do you like as a dc? Monte's a nfl hall of famer dc as per the experts i.e. nfl players, nfl coaches, etc. Will the transition happen over night? Jury's out. Again, who do you like as a dc?
JohnnyVol writes:
He is rated as 4 star by Rivals, but his 40 time is pretty slow (4.6) for a big time WR. No doubt that many guys have game speed and quickness that are plenty fast. Anyway, that fourty time just seems a little slow.
Nevertheless, based on recruiting services, seems like a great get for UT. I am encouraged by what CLK is doing so far.
98memories writes:
He was at minimum going to vist Florida and Florida St., so they must have been interested. Here is the link http://insider.espn.go.com/ncf/recrui...
VolPatrick writes:
Exactly. Rivals ranked the 2005 class as the number 4 overall, and the average star ranking was 3.63 (2007 was ranked #3 and also had an average rating of 3.63). 2004 ranked 10 and had an average rating of 3.25! Well, this class will be north of 3.5 with the addition of Mr. Green, and presumably that number will stay fairly static for the duration of the recruiting, and perhaps even go up a bit more should we add more 4*s and perhaps a 5*, though that is probably not very likely.
My feel of this class is that, while there isn't an Eric Berry, this could be a foundation for the future featuring the type of cast needed to compete for trips to Atlanta. Plus, these guys are going to get a chance to play immediately, so they will develop faster, hopefully, than has been the case in the past.
HilltopperVolPhi608 writes:
First of all, I don't know for sure if Florida did offer this guy but I can see why they wouldn't. Being the size that he is, he wouldn't fit into their offense very well. I say that because it seems like most of their receivers are more along the six feet and below range height wise. From what I have seen, their receivers are quick as hell. If they did offer him a scholarship, they would probably make him a tight end because he already has size and it wouldn't take much to put more weight on him because he has a big frame plus Ingram is probably going to the draft and Hernandez will be a junior next season so he would have quite a bit of playing time.
OdessaVol writes:
99, z,
Rivals has him listed as the 39th ranked player in florida. I live in Florida and am privy to the high school talent. If this guy is #39, he is a good get. You guys have offered much lower ranked guys than Green according to rivals (that is who you like to quote z).
govols87 writes:
I'm going to reply to your post only because you need to learn something. Just this once and never again. The fact is Mr. Green runs a 4.6 40 and is 6'2" 200 lbs. We can all agree that his top end speed is a little slow for the offenses run by UF and FSU. Plus his size complements a pro-style philosophy, which by the way is not the school of thought at both of those schools. However, it is run at UT by CLK, obviously. Some of us on this board, when it comes to recruiting, don't just look at stars and rankings and 40 times. It's a bit elementary to do so. Those of us who have been on this earth long enough to see Florida win it's FIRST SEC title in 1991 have seen our fair share of highly-rated, 4 and 5 star "big time recruits" get on the field and p!$$ down thier leg only to become "home sick" and head back to where they belong; at the local Comm. Coll. So before you get ahead of yourself by talking highly of your roster full of undersized speed-demons understand that everything good must come to an end(even if for a short time...see: UT). But what does it matter all this will go in one ear and out the other. As mentioned before, Ron Zook said it best..."Florida didnt win their first SEC title until 1991 and now they think they invented football." Thank you for your time.
BillsBrother writes:
glug, glug, glug...
thanks for the kool-aid 99.
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