Rhea County's Jacob RevisDynamite Dozen
No. 10 Jacob RevisRhea County guardSchools recruiting: Has offers from Navy, UTC, Jacksonville State; being recruited also by MTSU, Arkansas State, Liberty.Q: Why do you wear 52?A: My cousin, Adam Sims, wore 52 in the [19]90s and my brother Kevin wore it, and when I was in middle school I wanted to be like my brother.
For Rhea County's Revis family, football is as much a part of their lives as academic prowess and performing with the church choir.
So it's no surprise that Jacob Revis is drawing college football recruiters to Evensville. The 6-foot-2, 295-pound lineman has several offers in hand and more on the way, but he will take his time making a decision.
"My brother got an offer from Tennessee and he committed right away," said Jacob, who weighs in at No. 10 on the Times Free Press Dynamite Dozen.
Kevin went to Tennessee on a scholarship but now is preparing for his second season as a starter at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. With what Kevin endured came knowledge that may help his younger brother negotiate the recruiting trials and tribulations.
"You can't make too many hasty decisions. I will probably wait till the season is over and take some official visits and then make my decision," Jacob said. "I learned that everything isn't fair, and when you're one of the lower men on the totem pole you're expendable, I guess."
The elder brother's second recruiting decision also might weigh on Jacob's decision, if only because of a familiarity with the program.
"If I went to UTC it would be because of me, but I have been there a lot and I will see a lot of them this fall," he said. "It's not all about football with me. I want to look at the school and the academics."
UTC might also have an edge because of its renowned physical therapy school, which is currently where Revis' post-college interest lies. And while he carries a 3.9 grade point average and has scored 28 on the ACT, he knows wherever he plays will be due to his athletic prowess.
"We moved him from center to guard to give him an opportunity to pull," Golden Eagles coach Doug Greene said. "We wanted to make him a bigger part of our offense, and we're doing some advanced things with our guards."
The move also will allow schools to see that he is more than a somewhat short (by college standards) center.
"He'll be a guard or a center at the next level simply because his arms aren't long enough to play that tackle spot," Greene said, "but if a school gets him on campus they're going to love him because he carries his weight well, he has great feet, he's consistent and he is absolutely relentless. He plays hard all the time."
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765.