Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy's
Carnell Tate, the nation's top wide receiver per 247Sports, has named a top five of Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Notre Dame and Ohio State with several common threads as to why those schools made the cut.
"I built a great relationship with each coach at every school and I know their history of development. I know at each school can develop me well and I know I can fit in each school's offense," Tate said.
Tate was at Notre Dame again on Tuesday. After that visit, he will get to Georgia next weekend, which will be his first visit with the Bulldogs, Ohio State on April 1st, then an official visit with Tennessee the weekend of April 8th and 9th. He is also working on getting a visit scheduled with Alabama.
With his list now narrowed down and these visits scheduled, there are a few factors he is looking at on these trips that will help him get from five to one.
"Last minute relationships and how I'm treated at the school on my visit and then NIL," he said. "We have had some little talks about [NIL] but we will get into bigger talk about it when I get on campus."
Another factor will be who each school is bringing in as the quarterback in this class.
"That's definitely a key to see where the quarterbacks go will help me make a decision because I'll know which quarterback is there to help me get the ball," Tate said.
None of today's top five schools have a quarterback commit yet, but Tennessee has a Crystal Ball prediction for five-star Nicholaus Iamaleavea and Notre Dame has good buzz with five-star
Dante Moore.
Tate may play in a 7-on-7 tournament with Iamaleava coming up and he also has a good relationship with Moore, with the two players talking every day and even discussing taking visits together.
On Notre Dame, Tate said, "They're great guys. They're high on their players and make sure their players are ready. I'm definitely trying to see last minute how I fit in the offense and fit in on and off the field as well as the what kind of NIL opportunities are there."
Tennessee has moved up the list as Tate has taken two visits to campus now and is in consistent contact with new wide receivers coach
Kelsey Pope was well as offensive coordinator
Alex Golesh and head coach
Josh Heupel.
"Me and Coach Pope are picking up where K.B. (
Kodi Burns) had left off, so there was no lost relationship there," he said. "They always throw the ball. From when [Coach Heupel] was back at UCF, they always had 1,000 yard receivers. The previous year, they just had [Cedric] Tillman, but two other guys almost had 500 yards or more. The same with Coach Golesh, he wants to throw the ball. It's an air raid offense."