Tennessee is Robbing the Recruiting Cradle

At Tennessee, recruiting can’t start early enough.

Recently, Even Berry, brother of safety Eric Berry, has verbally committed to play for Tennessee under Lane Kiffin. That’s great – but Berry is only 13 and hasn’t even played a single high school game yet. However, his coach has said that the quarterback/running back/free safety plays on another level and has natural instinct handling the ball.

Tennessee's new head coach, Lane Kiffin. Image: Newscom

Of course, his coach is also his father, James Berry, who also attended Tennessee.

Even has a twin brother named Elliot who is also, apparently, a football start at 13, but hasn’t announced anything about college choices yet, though he has said that prefers LSU as of now. Papa Berry says that both boys are more talented and at a higher skill level than older brother Eric was at their age.

Committing at such a young age seems really limiting and, frankly, stupid. I remember how I saw the world when I was 13, and even if the kid is super mature, your college choice is HUGE. He’s admitted that he doesn’t really know anything but Tennessee. Personally, I wisih his parents would push him to explore tons of options over the next four years – even non-football options.