The 6-foot-3, 266-pound Washington received a scholarship offer from Tennessee on July 30 during his first visit there, and he returned Oct. 26 to attend the Vols' home game against South Carolina.
He picked up his first offer in May from Auburn, the school he grew up liking, and he said his father is originally from Alabama. After visiting the Tigers in July, he said they “most definitely” were “up there” on his list of early contenders.
But he said after his trip to Tennessee in July that he also was high on the Vols, in part because of Pruitt's staff. Defensive line coach
Tracy Rocker and defensive coordinator
Derrick Ansley, along with Pruitt, were among the coaches who spent time with Washington during that visit.
“I liked Coach Rocker,” Washington said at the time. “Coach Rocker, he’s a cool coach. I like how he talks and how he presents himself. He’s not real big on the weightlifting and stuff like that. He likes flexibility and if you can move and stuff like that.
“He said (he liked) how powerful I was and how I move and how quick I was with my hands and just stuff like that. He said he’ll probably use me outside, like a D-end or outside linebacker — something like that.”
Washington said after his trip to Knoxville in July that he was impressed with his first look at Tennessee.
“I went in expecting it to be real nice, and when I got there, I wasn’t surprised,” he said at the time. “I like that they’re an SEC school. The SEC, that’s probably the best conference in all of college football. I guess I could say (I liked) how happy and smiley everybody was.”