Vols RB Target Glover Recaps Official Visit to Knoxville

2022 Running Back Jaylon Glover talks Tennessee Volunteers official visit

Heading into his first of five official visits, Lake Gibson (Fla.) star running back Jaylon Glover looked to rekindle an old relationship with Josh Heupel and the Tennessee staff while taking in Knoxville for the first time. Glover's multi-day trip has now concluded, and he discusses his takeaways from the visit here.

"We kind of picked up where we left off," Glover said of his interaction with the Vols staff during the weekend. "The staff was really cool, and there were some new faces that I saw, but Coach Heup does a great job of getting personable guys on his staff that connect easily and are real people. You know, I really enjoyed it, and it was great seeing them through the whole process of the official visit. They really welcomed my family and me with open arms, and I really enjoyed it."

As Glover alluded to in his preview of the trip, he has built a strong relationship with Tennessee running backs coach Jerry Mack over the virtual recruiting scene, but he was excited to meet him in person.

"It was cool," Glover said of meeting Mack. "It was really cool. It was the same Coach Mack that was on the phone, but it just got a little bump up in person. He is real. He loves talking ball, and he is like there is a time and a place for that. He told us about the city, which he is learning as well because it is a new environment. He was just asking questions about me and my family. It was really good."

This weekend was his first trip to Knoxville, and there were a couple of key takeaways for the prized running back recruit.

"For one, I really liked the Peyton Manning room and just walking out in Neyland," Glover said. "That was a different vibe that was really cool to see because I have never been there before. Just looking up and imagining when it is full-capacity at 103,000 fans in the stadium was a surreal moment for me."

Glover got to spend time in Neyland watching Mack coach during the Vols camp on Friday night, which offered a great opportunity to see how he would be coached if he chose Tennessee.

"They are really active," Glover said of the Vols staff. "He and Coach Matt Merritt, his assistant, are both really active. They will walk through it and vocalize it to where guys understand what they are doing before they go out there and do it. That is what I really liked. They did something wrong, they corrected them, but if they did something right, they celebrated them."

Glover was joined by fellow Sunshine State standout DeMario Tolan during the trip, and the two hit it off during their time together in Knoxville.

"Before the OV, we decided we wanted to take it together because we already knew each other from talking over social media," Glover said about Tolan. "Basically, we already assumed we were going to hit it off, but we threw around the idea that this is pretty dope. He was at Clemson and got offered over there and came to Knoxville after. He was like, just walking around this is almost nicer than Clemson. He said if anything, Tennessee was up one. I really loved the experience, and he really liked it a lot, so there is a possibility."

So did the Vols do enough to stay in this recruitment until the end for Glover?

"Most definitely," he says.Glover's recruitment will only intensify in the coming month, as he will have a full slate of visits. "I will be at UCF on the 7th and Florida on the 8th," he previously said.  "The following week, my official visit will be at South Carolina. Then I will be at Georgia on the 15th, and the week after that, I will be at Georgia Tech, then I will be at FSU for a mid-week official visit, then I will be going to Utah for the 25th-27th."Following the visits in June, Glover will start working towards a decision before his high school season.