Jameel Owens and Stacy McGee decided to stay close to home and committed Tuesday night to Oklahoma.
The Muskogee High School duo was also being recruited by Tennessee.
Owens was in Knoxville this past weekend for an official visit. He was a passenger in a car with freshmen Gerald Jones and Ahmad Paige when the UT players were cited for misdemeanor marijuana possession Friday.
Owens was rated the No. 7 wide receiver in the country by Rivals.com. The athletic 6-foot-4, 225-pound senior had 167 catches for 3,444 yards and 45 touchdowns in his high school career.
He picked the Sooners over UT, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech.
McGee (6-5, 275) is rated the No. 6 defensive tackle in the country by Rivals. He had 98 tackles, 20 tackles for a loss and six sacks as a senior. UT finished runnerup in the chase for McGee.
Tennessee 69, South Carolina 57 men's…
Vanderbilt 65, Tennessee 47, Jan. 24…
Signing day celebration at Neyland…
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Comments » 126
Vols1998 writes:
I hope we have a Plan B,
Go get some new Vols!!
jobrando#216494 writes:
Mom and dad decided to try to keep them away from drugs
volfaninVA writes:
Too bad. Local law enforcement in Norman must not be as tough about burnt out license tag lights. And if we let people drive around with burnt out licence tag lights, then the terrorists have won.
tenuscvol writes:
Probably best for all involved considering recent events...my guess is they were staying home anyway......tough break though ...hopefully some talent will come our way....GoVols!
jsmithnga#207674 writes:
SURPRISE,SURPRISE!
ncvol17 writes:
Maybe they just heard Knoxville had some good ganja so they came for a toke.
utwick writes:
A friend of mine in Dallas (and a big Okie fan) told me a week ago that Owens was pretty much a lock for the Sooners. They held a scholarship for him. He visited UT just to take in the visit (and catch a buzz). I bet, like Clinton, he never inhaled.
VolsorCat writes:
I am not giving up yet, but it seems like there is very little good news with respect to recruiting. A long 3 weeks lies ahead. We need to close strong.
eaglentn2002#343016 writes:
WOW thats really a shocker! I was positive we'd get Owens I heard his parents were very impressed!
King53 writes:
tenuscvol...I agree. Best if all parties involved just move on. As already posted, I don't think UT was really in the running for his services anyway.
spencer1989#206886 writes:
Well....It could have been worse. He could have signed....Gotten here...Become a great player....And then booted off the team for being buzzed. Maybe it's a good thing but we will really never know.
TNfaninMS writes:
So who exactly have we recruited????? Seems to me like our recruting has fallen out the bottom... anyone agree?
rabidvol1998 writes:
Shouldn't be "targets ... pick" not "picks"? Obviously i need a life.
mdvol writes:
Why can't Josh McNeil host the recruiting visits? That boy knows how to get the chicks. Three at one time I believe was the story. See if Owens will reconsider. Have McNeil call him.
orvol writes:
Bottom line is all we really need in this class are DTs, OLs, and a DE or two. Despite McGee's decision to go to OK, we're still in good shape to pick up what we need. Of course, it will come down to signing day, but we don't need a highly ranked class this year. We've just got to fill our needs.
VOLS85 writes:
You're right rabid, I thought we held our esteemed reporters in the journalism field to a higher standard than half of the posters on here.
On a related note, I think losing these two was a forgone conclusion anyways...
TNPilgrim writes:
For those of us that are parents: what would you have done if your son had gone half way across the country on a recruiting trip and got busted by the cops smoking pot in a car with the "escorts" from his prospective team? Personally, I would have had two words - Forget Tennessee! Considering their past drug problems and the associated publicity, it's hard to believe that Fulmer can't get these guys to stay clean when they're with the recruits. But it's also hard to believe that when they get caught he treats it like a curfew violation. So much for taking advantage of a good hire with the OC.
nicksjuzunk#646117 writes:
jobrando,
Exactly.
VolsorCat,
Exactly
tennecwingrider writes:
And the hits just keep on coming......
dvols writes:
i wonder what police in norman, tuscaloosa, auburn, gainesville, and athens do when they catch athletes.
also our academic standards must be higher,since we had a few suspensions during bowl season.
cant blame coaches on this one, just location and men with integrity working in blue!
csneed#252165 writes:
JAMEEL.. DUDE..
You made the right choice. You're an idiot. Where are your parents? Wasn't there any parental training here, hey, hello.. POT IS WRONG, AND YOU WILL GET BUSTED, SON.
I don't give a @#$%$^ if you're the best rated "whatever" in high school football, this one will be the first to use steroids to get the bulk he needs. We are not babysitters here.. you're an adult now, but if you cannot ACT like an adult, PLEASE DON'T EVER LEAVE OKLAHOMA.
Now, you're somebody else's problem.
Thank God.
Pullingguard writes:
Chances were slim to none to start with.. Face the facts, UT has not done a good job on recruiting this year... Probably Trooper did not give his all with job opportunities and the rest of the staff has not been focused with the recruiting coordinator going elsewhere... Question is,,, Is it too late to recover? Probably a class out of the top 25 this year... Will tell on the team later.
BigVolinCarolina writes:
Boy, I didn't see this one coming. Did you?
snowvol writes:
No surprise at all. As TNPilgrim noted, those of us who are parents "get it". No way I let my son, or daughter for that matter, go to a school after finding out his university hosts were smoking some pot.
I've been wildly critical of Fulmer over the past few years. However, his hire of Clawson was a dramatic step in the right direction; major props to him for an excellent move. Leave it to Fulmer, though, to act like this incident is little more than kids being stupid. No Phil, it's more than that. I played basketball at the D-1 level in the late 70's. Had me or anyone else on the team been nailed in a situation like this, we'd be off the team. This is where a coach desperately needs to make a statement to everyone in that locker room: You do something stupid like this, you're done here. Some might think that's harsh. Others know it would correct a good deal of the problems. Fulmer, or any other head coach, can't be a babysitter. But a coach can have a set of standards that when they're broken or not lived up to, the player knows the price he'll be paying.
HilltopperVolPhi608 writes:
Personally, I'm not really worried about this years recruiting class. Don't you guys know that we have had two top 5 finishes in recruiting in the last three years according to rivals? Last year we got Brimfield who was listed at weighing 287 when he signed but now probably weighs 300, Ben Martin is going to be a stud, Donald Langly, and Rolando Melancon. And don't forget the local guy Rae Sykes. Yeah we need lineman on both sides of the ball, but I'm not particularly worried about this years class. I expect a monster class next because there should not be any questions about the coaching stability.
dogboy writes:
So sad... Maybe next year the hosts won't do drugs in front of the recruits. Wow what a shame to lose out on those guys. I wonder how much talent has been lost to the Mary J.
dburgVol writes:
I totally agree that smoking pot is way wrong, especially if there are recruits involved, but ok, kick them off the team? This isnt high school. These guys are legally adults, and you cant blame Fulmer for everything. I mean to most of you guys Fulmer might as well have horns, a pointed tail, and carry around a pitch fork. He cant be held responsible for everything. He cant just get rid of these kids, he has a moral responsibility to try to help them get their lives together and coach them, and oversee their academics. He's not a nanny, and I think he does the right thing by giving them another chance. You dont want them ending up like James Banks do you? He wont slap them on the wrists, but he wont tell them to go to you-know-where. He wants to make a difference in their lives as young men and I commend him for that. Lastly, we have a young team that really only needs depth because we have very able bodies to play, but this subpar class will show up in a few years in the 4th quarter when the starters are tired.
bedmagic_23#311856 writes:
At this point it looks like the coaches should focus their efforts on the 2009 class.
dvols writes:
like i said, yu ens think we are the only ones that have drugs?
snoop dog hangs out at usc
duh
and i like ol snoop
nitetime writes:
i feel like the orange is in a positive direction with the new hire but they do need some more strict rules than just drug classes after the first offense. when they know that is all they will get then they do not care about getting caught with drugs. we need to stop treating these guys like they are meal tickets and start uping the stacks so this will be a nice environment so a mother 500 miles away will not have any concerns. phil you need to build the public trust up
pdhuff#552644 writes:
Mountain buzzing or flathills playing! Thank goodness this will all blow over. We may even move up again to rankings. We've sprang from 44 to 42nd and now a giant leap to 41st.
Look out top 30, we're a threat. Just ignore Rivals top 100 (final now), we weren't interested. Good thing, they weren't either. Mutual pact. Come on Clawson, spring some "good" surprises on us. My Vols, up or down, some days the road's a little smoother.
texvol writes:
They were going there before last week. He only came to Knoxville to see if the blounts were comparable to those in Norman. Guess not.
Smokey57 writes:
dburgVol on January 15, 2008 at 11:15 p.m.
Way to go with a voice of reason. All of those posting "parents" who "get it" apparently would have crucified their flesh and blood if caught smoking pot.
As for CPF, of course it's ALL his fault. It was his turn to mind the nursery. Again, the parents who "get it" would never let their 17-18 year old out of their sight for a second! That's how those parents know their kids aren't involved in any "extracurricular" activity. When their kids go to college, those parents will go with them and follow them around like a new puppy.
GreerVol22 writes:
winning the coaching battle....losing the recruiting war....I know you had to hire a staff coach but ge whiz beav...is there not one person on the staff focused on locking up some of these players?
While the coaching hires were smart and safe, they were not "sexy" and that ladies and germs is what lures the top athletes these days.
losvolsganan writes:
Yep... no pot smoking in Denmark. LOL
Higher standard in Denmark...LOL
GoVol writes:
I guess Paige & Jones made sure no new talented receivers would come in and threaten their chances of playing time!!
Basketball_Jones writes:
I don't blame the kid that was in the car. If I was his parents I would not have ben happy with what happened. Imagine sending your son on a recruiting trip and he gets put in all the papers about being in the car with some UT players who have weed....Mine wouldn't be back in that town.
bigbluevol writes:
TNPilgrim-
Someone said it, but it's not like OU is exactly the land of spick and span. Lynn McGruder was trying to sell weed out of his dorm room at UT and Fulmer kicked him off the team. Where did he turn up? OU. Stoops has not exactly been a strict disciplinarian, either. These two players had said they would like to play together. McGee hadn't visited yet. They decided to stay in state, as they had long been rumored to do. As long as we fill our needs, we'll be ok. The recruiting rankings don't ultimately decide anything.
waterskier3#226480 writes:
folks bad class in 2005, good class in 2006, bad class in 2007...... means you are going to be average in your conference. its hard enough to win every game getting top 5 talent every year but when you go from top 10 to top 100 every other year that lower tier talent has to play and they are lower tier for a reason......
what were the defensive coaches doing while fulmer was trying to hire an offensive staff... come on the defensive staff can't be pounding the payment....
average expectations breeds average performance... is that our standard at UT now.... we're ok with 3 losses a year???
forgive me for expecting more
arkyvol writes:
i keep logging on, hoping for some good news about commits, but man! it looks like this season is gonna be right up there with some of bill battle's best.
bigbluevol writes:
waterskier, as I've pointed out before, we had a good class in 2004. That makes sense. You get highly rated "skill" players one year, you're not as likely to get them the next. Now UT is trying to get lineman, not something that gives them a lot of points in the recruiting system. It's going to be ok.
redmanvol writes:
I think we should start recruiting smarter guys to come to this university. Why didn't they just smoke the blunts in their apartment and bring in some strippers from Last Chance (not the ugly one with C section scars). I bet the recruits would have come to UT then.
vol4jesus writes:
ladies and germs? greer get that spelllllcheck a workin'. Is the sky falling? When is signing date? Just don't rivals yourself to death over recruiting. Life is more than a box of chocolates and 4**** recruits. See ya
Ironcity writes:
As I predicted in an a post a couple of days ago, once the coaching changes were made the Fulmer haters were going to pound on recruiting. Once the recruiting deadline passes and we get a number of good players the Fulmer haters will pound on the guys who transfer or get into trouble (that part is already happening). Its a broken record that will never change. If we had a top 5 class the same people would be complaining about the ones that got away. Its unfortunate but our fan base is pretty fractured right now. I would argue that a complete change of coaching would likely drive our team into a second division status for a decade or more. One will never know if thats the case until it happens but I could easly see this happening if we fire another successful coach.
jdcvols#230433 writes:
Ironcity, your comments are just as bad as the so-called Fulmer haters. Are you capable of understanding why the fan base is fractured?? You can have your opinions about CPF but I can assure there are many out there that feel the opposite. I just receive my copy of the latest Rocky Top News and they referenced the fractured fan base several times in two different articles. The trend over the past 6 years, bowl loss to PSU, and the horrible losses to ALA and FLA caused it...having players caught with drugs and a suspect recruiting season (so far) is not helping. What CPF needs is some consistent good news and a strong winning season in 2008. In the meantime, the fan base has every right to question everything about the FB program.
GiveHimSix1387 writes:
Man, our recruiting is absolutely atrocious this year. We win the East and 10 games and can't put up half the recruiting class we did last year. I hope CPF can do what he usually does and finish well.
jdcvols#230433 writes:
Question for the KNS Staff...how about giving us an update on who we are actively recruiting? It seems that we have 10-15 spots to fill with only 3 weeks left, I think we would all appreciate an update.
GerryOP writes:
Owens was strongly considering UT until PAF told him that last Friday night burned one of his 4 chances. Mean Ol' Phil. ;-{
TommyJack writes:
jdcvols: You're way out of line with such a logical post. What are you, are loser/hater?
On the money, dude. Pound the fritter.
vol4jesus writes:
remember boys and girls you don't get fashion points for recruiting ol/dl and lb's. So don't look for glamour ranking like last year. We just need to close some big boys for the trenches to go with our skill class from last year. GO VOLS!!!
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