Less than three months ago, Boston College gave Jayson Jenkins his first Division I scholarship offer. He’s now weighing offers from more than a dozen schools and trying to decide which of them he might want to visit leading up to National Signing Day.
Tennessee on Tuesday became the latest major program to join the race for the Class of 2022 defensive lineman from Notre Dame High School in Lawrenceville, N.J. He said he was “pretty happy” to add the Vols to the growing list of teams pursuing him, and there’s a chance they now could host him on one of his final three official visits.
The 6-foot-6, 260-pound Jenkins said Tennessee defensive analyst Levorn Harbin informed him of the offer on Tuesday. The Vols showed interest in Jenkins for several days, he said, before extending the offer.
“We’ve been talking, building a relationship for about a week now, and I got the call today and the confirmation, so pretty happy about that,” he said.
Harbin and Tennessee defensive line coach Rodney Garner have been in contact with Jenkins over the past week. He said Harbin has told him “that I’m just their overall, ideal fit” on the defensive line.
“They like my size, how I’m fast off the ball, my technique — just using my hands and everything like that, being physical and just totally dominating the line of scrimmage,” said Jenkins, who’s rated a three-star prospect by 247Sports. “Just to hear that from such a big program in Tennessee, a big SEC school, that’s just very, very great to hear, so very happy about that.”
Last week, Jenkins told 247Sports’ Brain Dohn that he was planning to use his final three official visits to travel to West Virginia, Florida and Missouri this month. He picked up offers from West Virginia and Missouri less than a month ago, while he’s still awaiting an offer from Florida.
With Tennessee now pursuing him, he said it’s not out of the question that he could alter his upcoming travel plans to give the Vols one of his remaining visits.
“I’m just in this phase right now of just establishing where I really have my interest in, and … start talking about some decisions with my family and whether to swap out or just keep the same official-visit list,” Jenkins said. “That’s pretty much where I’m at with that.”
He said he likes what he has seen and heard from Tennessee so far, and the Vols’ fan base already has caught his attention.
“I’m a very big college football watcher,” Jenkins said. “Just growing up, (I knew) that team, and I know right now they’re in a phase where they’re trying to take that next big leap in their program and just really being a title contender for the SEC.
“With that in itself, just their competitive nature is already really appealing. That’s pretty much what I know: They’re a competitive, hard-knock, get-after-it type of football team, and that’s what their program is all about. …
“I’ve been hearing that they play roughly in front of, like, 100,000-something people in their stadium game in and game out. That’s pretty much what I know. And I’m seeing that on Twitter, as well. Their fans are very excited about pretty much everything going on with the program, so there’s a lot of hype around it and everything like that, which is very, very cool.”
Jenkins said the opportunity to play in the SEC is “very appealing,” with Tennessee, Missouri and Florida all being involved with him.
“That’s just the biggest stage of football,” he said. “That’s what they’re known for — being those types of schools, just going in week in and week out and just putting on a show on the field. That’s just something that’s very appealing.
“Growing up, you’d just tell yourself, ‘Hey, I want to be in that position.’ Now, it all coming to reality, it’s just a very, very cool and great experience. I’m beyond blessed for these opportunities.”
While he said he was “born and raised in Jersey,” he added that he’s “willing to go wherever.” That includes Tennessee, a state he has visited at least once before because he has family in the Knoxville area.
“I have family in that Tennessee area, so I’m pretty familiar with the area they’ve got over there,” Jenkins said. “I believe it’s, like, south of Knoxville. I have actually visited down there. I was, like, 12 or 13 years old, and I remember it being a good time. It’s very warm and just good weather pretty much year-round.”
Boston College and Pittsburgh hosted him on official visits last month. Despite currently planning to use all three of his remaining official visits, Jenkins said he’s not sure when he might be ready to announce his college decision.
“We’ll kind of play that out from visit to visit,” he said, “so we’ll see about that.”
On the field, he said he took “a very big leap” over the past year and had a breakout senior season that made him a Power Five prospect.
“After my junior year, I just really decided that I really wanted it for myself, just to be a better overall football player and just an overall person — just improved in all aspects of my life — and I kept at it every day,” he said. “After the season, I broke down every part of my game that I really wanted to improve, and I just worked 1,000 percent every day, just trying to get better and be stronger, be faster. …
“It was just a very big leap. I just really went out there and really put my heart and soul out in every game, and just didn’t take anything for granted this year. Just totally went out there and dominated.”
