KNOXVILLE - The Tennessee football program picked up a trio of commitments Tuesday night from Whitehaven teammates in Memphis: inside linebackers Bryson Eason and Martavius French and outside linebacker Tamarion McDonald.
They become the Volunteers' 15th, 16th and 17th commitments for the 2020 signing class.
The 6-foot-2, 240-pound French is rated a four-star prospect and rated as the No. 10 inside linebacker prospect in the country by the 247Sports.com composite, which combines rankings from 247, Rivals.com and ESPN.com. He had 17 offers and had been committed to Arkansas but had decommitted Sunday before flipping to Tennessee.
Eason, listed at 6-2, 250 pounds, also is a four-star prospect and is rated as the No. 11 inside linebacker prospect in the country by the 247Sports composite. He selected the Vols over Arkansas, although he had a total of 22 offers.
The 6-1, 218-pound McDonald is rated a three-star prospect and the No. 34 outside linebacker in the country by the 247Sports composite. He had been committed to Mississippi State since May 25 before reopening his recruitment late Tuesday evening.
Whitehaven is 6-1 on the season and ranked third in Class 6A. Eason has 42 tackles - four for loss - a sack and a fumble caused through five games of stats turned into MaxPreps.com, while French has 37 tackles, 11 for loss. McDonald has 20 tackles.
The additions come at areas of need heading into next season. The Vols are down to just five inside linebackers on the roster: senior Daniel Bituli, sophomore Solon Page, redshirt freshman J.J. Peterson and freshmen Quavaris Crouch and Henry To'o To'o.
Bituli not only is the lone senior in that group, but he's also been the team's leading tackler the past two seasons.
Tennessee loses senior Darrell Taylor at outside linebacker.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.