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WestEndVol
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- 247Clay said Tennessee, Georgia, Ohio State and Florida make up his current group of favorites, and he enjoyed his relatively brief visit with the Vols on Saturday even more than either of his previous stops at UT.
“It was better than a game, because I got to spend more one-on-one time with (defensive backs) coach (Willie) Martinez and Coach Butch (Jones) and the rest of the staff,” said Clay, who’s ranked the nation’s No. 217 overall prospect and No. 21 cornerback in the 247Sports Composite for the 2016 class.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen the facility and everything, and it’s crazy. It’s beautiful, with all the new stuff up there at Tennessee.”
The 6-foot-1, 180-pound Clay said he had heard about Tennessee’s state-of-the-art Anderson Training Center, but he hadn’t seen it in person during his visits for the Vols’ home games against Alabama and Missouri last season.
“I mean, I’ve heard about (Tennessee’s facilities), and I’ve heard from other recruits I’m friends with. We talk about it. Everybody talks about how nice Tennessee is now,” Clay said.
“That was my first time getting to see it in person. … It helped them a lot, because I had seen pretty much all the other schools.”
He said Tennessee has made him a high priority over the past several months.
“They seem like they really want me a lot, because they always ask me to come up there,” said Clay, who has received scholarship offers from more than 20 teams. “They seem like they really want me a lot, and they just really talk about playing me early. If I can do it, then they’ll put me in there early.”
While Clay said his previous trips to Knoxville had shown him that Tennessee has “probably one of the best” game-day environments he has experienced — “either the best or around the best” — he said that’s not the only reason he likes the Vols.
“I just like Tennessee, of course, football-wise,” he said. “But off-the-field-wise, Knoxville just seems like a great place to live. I like the campus. I love the people up there, and just the environment around Tennessee football. They’ve got some of the greatest fans in the world, and that’s always a good thing up there at the University of Tennessee.”
“Coach Butch, really, I think he’s getting Tennessee back to how (former coach) Phillip Fulmer had it. I think he’s getting Tennessee back to those days.”
Clay, who also went to Florida last month and has visited Georgia twice since Feb. 21, said he’s “definitely going to come back up for a spring practice or something” at Tennessee. And he’s currently hoping to decide on a college within the next few months.
“I’m planning on graduating early, so I’m going to probably make a decision by May or June,” he said, adding that he will narrow his focus to five finalists sometime before then. “I’ll be probably just visiting my top schools (before then), and then, after visiting my top schools with both of my parents and all the coaches, I’ll make a decision then.”