Tennessee Football trending for top-100 QB in 2024

Tennessee football has become the favorite for top-100 2024 quarterback Jake Merklinger and here’s what it means for the Vols and others. 

The dominoes are starting to fall when it comes to quarterbacks and the 2024 college football recruiting class and it looks like another is about to fall for Tennessee football.

Tennessee football has been involved with a couple of highly-ranked quarterbacks in the 2024 college football recruiting class. The Vols just made the top five for five-star QB Jadyn Davis last week along with Michigan, Ohio State, North Carolina, and Clemson.

However, Michigan appears to be the odds-on favorite to land the commitment of Davis this week when he announces on Friday on ESPN. Another top-100 QB in the 2024 college football recruiting class, Air Noland, also announced that he would be making a commitment on April 8.

That’s a little over a week after Davis will be making his announcement. Ohio State is expected to get a visit this weekend, but hasn’t offered yet and that could change if Davis does indeed choose the Wolverines as expected.

As far as what all this means for Tennessee football — the QB recruiting board (nationally) is coming into focus. Tennessee hasn’t pushed as hard for Davis and that’s because the Vols have been focused on four-star, top-100 QB Jake Merklinger.

That focus is also paying off.

Chad Simmons of On3.com and Steve Wiltfong of 247 sports — the top recruiting analyst for each company — have put in expert predictions for Merklinger to wind up with Tennessee football.

This is important on the larger scale of college football recruiting in 2024 because Georgia is another team that’s been in the mix for Merklinger, who is from the state of Georgia. Michigan State has also been in the mix and the Spartans will need to reset their QB board.

For Georgia, it means their focus is still on Dylan Raiola. The Bulldogs already have a four-star QB commitment too, so even if they miss on Raiola, they still have a top-200 QB committed in Ryan Puglisi.

As far as Merklinger, Tennessee football now has an 87-percent chance to win this commitment according to the On3 prediction machine after the projection of Simmons. And after landing a five-star QB in 2023, the Vols look poised to add another talented arm in 2024.