Keaten Wade knew he was on Tennessee’s radar after Vols wide receivers coach
Tee Martin stopped at his school in January. Not long after that, Tennessee joined the growing list of SEC teams pursuing the Class of 2022 linebacker from Summit High School in Spring Hill, Tenn., extending scholarship offers to both Wade and his twin brother, Class of 2022 athlete
Destin Wade.
A 6-foot-4, 215-pound outside linebacker,
Keaten Wade said he “definitely” expects to visit the Vols in the near future to take a closer look at the program, and he’s naturally interested in playing for them as a Nashville-area native. “I like it a lot, actually,” Wade said of Tennessee. “They got a lot of in-state players like Keshawn(Lawrence) and other people, and I just feel like it’d be a cool thing to be a part of.”
Kentucky gave Wade and his twin brother their first offers in late November. LSU extended an offer to him in December, and Texas A&M and Ole Miss followed suit in January before both of them landed their offers from Tennessee on Feb. 1.
Keaten Wade said he and his brother both spoke with Martin and Tennessee head coach
Jeremy Pruitt after learning of their offers from the Vols.
“They said they think we can be the best in the country, and they liked our film while they were going through,” Wade said. “After they were done with (evaluating) ‘21s, they went to ‘22s, and they liked our film and athleticism.”
Wade plays on both offense and defense at Summit, but he said “some schools said I’ll probably play outside linebacker” in college.
He only has been to Tennessee’s campus once before, participating in one of the Vols’ 7-on-7 tournaments in June. He said he “would like to check it out” soon, and he’s already interested in the Vols based on what he knows about them. “I only got to see the locker room (last year), which was pretty cool,” Wade said.
“I thought they were a good team, and I thought they had a productive season. All the people around me are, like, diehard Tennessee fans. … I heard it’s a pretty loud stadium, and I feel like Tennessee is going to make a good turnaround for this next season and just keep going forward, I feel like, after the (2020) recruiting class.”
Tennessee is just one of a few schools he’s interested in visiting. He said he already has been to Virginia Tech, Vanderbilt, Memphis, SMU, Kentucky and Ole Miss. “I don’t have any plans right now, specifically,” Wade said. “I just have to talk to my parents and stuff and see where we go. … I’ll probably, definitely be visiting Tennessee, since it’s close. I feel like Texas A&M would be a cool place to visit, (and) also LSU. I would like to go visit Louisville. That seems interesting.”
While
Keaten Wade and his brother were born in Nashville and have grown up in the area, he said his parents are from Columbus, Ohio, and “basically all of my family” still lives in Ohio. That’s why he grew up following Ohio State. “I usually watched Ohio State,” Wade said. “But I always watched a lot of college football games.”
He admitted he would be interested in the Buckeyes if they were to extend an offer to him, but he’s looking at the recruiting process from “a business perspective, because I just want to go where I can make an impact and play and have good coaches around me.” “I know we’re going up to Columbus for a camp, so I don’t know if we’ll visit (Ohio State) yet,” Wade said. “I mean, it’d be pretty cool to get an offer from a school that we liked growing up. It’d be a cool opportunity.”
Wade said he and his brother naturally are close and would like to attend the same college, although they “might be” open to choosing different schools.
“We’re going to take visits and, when the coaches talk to us, see how we fit around their system and see which one fits best for us,”
Keaten Wade said. “But I think we’d like to play with each other in college. …“I just want, like, the best fit for him and to see where he can go at the next level and improve his game. But I feel like we can improve each other’s games while we’re together.”