Tennessee’s class of 2026 football commitments got bigger Friday night.
By 315 pounds, to be precise.
The Volunteers continued their busy summer by receiving a nonbinding pledge from J.B. Shabazz, a 6-foot-6, 315-pound offensive tackle from Kernersville, North Carolina, which is the largest suburb of Winston-Salem. The four-star prospect is the nation’s No. 29 tackle on the 247Sports.com composite rankings and the No. 320 overall recruit.
Shabazz didn’t receive a scholarship offer from Tennessee until February, but wound up including the Vols on his official visit list. He traveled to South Carolina on May 30, Penn State on June 6, North Carolina State on June 9, Tennessee on June 13 and Ohio State on June 20 before ultimately picking the Vols over the Gamecocks.
“I didn’t think I would because they came kind of — not late, late, but they came kind of late for me,” Shabazz told 247Sports. “They had everybody talking to me, so I had a feeling that they were interested and whatnot. We had finally come down to it in April or May, and I finally made the decision I was going to switch out some of my other visits and I was going to move stuff around.