Evan Berry commits to Tennessee — at age 13?
Tennessee got a big time commit the other day.
Evan Berry, brother of All-American DB Eric Berry, took the Vols up on a scholarship offer and has said he will join the UT program… in 2013.
You see, Evan is 13… hasn’t even played high school football yet.
Now there is a lot of family history there. James Berry, dad to the Berry boys, played football at Tennessee in the 1980’s. And, of course, you have Eric tearing it up in the defensive backfield for the Vols these days.
So Evan figured, sure, I’ll go to Tennessee. And daddy James says that both Evan and his twin brother, Elliott, are ahead of the pace of Eric at the same age.
Woo hoo!
However… don’t get too excited Vol fans. The quotes from young Evan don’t exactly make you feel like he is set in stone:
“It’s the only college I know right now and it seems the best for me,” Evan told Rivals.com. “My dad went there and my brother is there now. I know I can do the same things there. I have a real friendly relationship with the coaches there. I don’t know them too well, but I know I will have plenty of time to get to know them.”
Ok…
He goes on to say that he can’t wait to play for Monte Kiffin. Now, I don’t want to throw more water on the situation here, but Monte is 69. A young 69, but still 69. So he would be 73 at the earliest when the Berry boys hit UT. That seems more like an age moving into retirement rather than coaching and recruiting…
unless, of course, you’re Joe Paterno.
This all kind of reminds me of another Vol commit. Jimmy Clausen announced his intentions to follow brothers Casey and Rick to Tennessee when he was about the same age. Only he never made it there, opting for Notre Dame.
Anyway, there is joy in Volville tonight. Just hope the fans aren’t counting the days till Evan gets there.
July 2nd, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Hope Evan makes it to Knoxville and can be the caliber of player Eric is. This should be a very interesting season for the VOLS, we hope nothing like last season when we had nothing offensively.