Kyle Prater: Tennessee in final six

On Wednesday, ESPN released their star ranking system on all the prospects they have evaluated to date. One of those players was Kyle Prater (Hillside, IL/Proviso West High School) who was rated as the nations 43rd best player and a four star recruit. VolNation got a chance to speak with Prater about his recruiting process, what schools are still in the running, and his visit to Tennessee last week.

“Recruiting is going good right now for me,” said Prater. “I’ve been out on the field working really hard and getting the team ready for our upcoming season. We want to win state. Camp starts on the 12th of August and I’m just dying for things to get going. I want to break the records I broke last year which was 60 catches for 949 yards and then nine touchdowns. I think I can break those and even maybe double those stats as a senior.”

When asked if he could describe his playing style in one word Prater provided this response.

“I’d like to think I am dynamic,” said Prater. “I am a playmaker with the ball in my hands. I feel my game gives me a lot of advantages over other players who play defense and I can explode on the field. Teams think I don’t have very good YAC(yards after catch) and I’ve been working on my quickness and speed and am going to show people once I get the ball in my hands I am going to make a run for the end zone.”

With close to over 40 scholarship offers for the 8th best wide receiver in the nation, Prater went into detail about which schools he is looking at more closely than the rest.

“Right now my top group is USC, Oklahoma, Illinois, Tennessee, Alabama, and Notre Dame, said Prater. Those are the schools right now that I’ve narrowed it down to.”

With such an impressive list, Prater gave VolNation some insight into what he likes about Tennessee and where they currently stand.

“I am very interested in Tennessee,” said Prater. “I just went there for a visit and it went really well while I was there. The visit was really nice. Coach Kiffin talked to me about how I could be a big target in their offense they are putting in there. Coach also talked about his history with the USC Trojans and how well they did when he was there and that things will be similar at Tennessee. I was really impressed by that as I think Tennessee could do it. While I was there I got to also speak with some players and I got along well with the team when I was there. Overall it was a pretty good visit.”

While Tennessee looks to be a player in this race, Prater talked about some of the other schools he is interested in as well.

“Well I like all these schools a lot,” said Prater. “SC, I am actually going out there for an un-official visit on the 10th and then for an official visit later in September when they play San Jose State. Coach Carroll told me he will make me a Trojan and I was pretty excited about that as its SC. When it comes to Oklahoma I like what coach Bob Stoops has going on down there. The team was really good last year and I think they could be even better this year. Why wouldn’t I want to be apart of that? Illinois is my hometown team and they will always be in the picture. Its Illinois! Coach Zook has things going well up there and he has really turned things around. Illinois has always been there for me. For Alabama I could play along with Julio Jones and that excites me. Alabama is a great program and Coach Saban has things going great down there.”

With Prater getting ready to take visits to other schools for official visits VolNation.com will keep track with Kyle Prater and will follow his recruiting process closely. VolNation would like to thank Kyle for his time and wish him good luck on his choice for school and his senior year.

Tagged as: Kyle Prater