The coach of a former Tennessee commit said college football recruiting is a “ugly” and “nasty business” after saying the Volunteers pulled his star player’s scholarship two weeks from signing day.
Defensive end Marques Ford of Tampa, Fla., had been committed to Tennessee since last summer. He was informed on Wednesday that the Volunteers no longer had room for him in this year's class because they had too many commitments.
As you can imagine, Ford wasn’t happy about it, and neither was his coach.
"It's an ugly business," Ford's coach, Frank LaRosa told the Tennessean.com's Matt Slovin.
” … In the nasty business, they kept it sort of honest by at least saying that they had other commits and they were pulling his commitment.”
Tennessee already had three commitments on the defensive line enroll earlier this month – including Alpharetta High School’s Andrew Butcher. The Volunteers also have three more defensive linemen lined up for signing day, including 5-star Kahlil McKenie and Buford High School’s Quay Picou.
Tennessee has 27 commits, and could finish with a few more by Feb. 4, 247sports.com’s Ryan Callahan told the website.
“There’s only so much room in the class, and I think they were coming up against that limit,” Callahan said. “With that being the case, and with Tennessee having three other highly touted defensive ends in this class and three highly touted defensive tackles, I think those are all major factors.”
Tennessee’s Butch Jones (AP)
