Caleb Herring has been one of Tennessee’s top in-state targets for months, and he recently has started to hear from the Vols even more frequently. He’s also getting some helpful feedback on Tennessee from his brother, Vols freshman linebacker
Elijah Herring, who arrived in Knoxville last month.
The younger Herring, a four-star Class of 2023 edge rusher from Riverdale High School in Murfreesboro, Tenn., is now preparing to see Tennessee again for himself. After visiting the Vols four times last year within a span of less than five months, he said he’s scheduled to return to Tennessee on March 5 to attend its next junior day.
The Vols are just one of a handful of teams that might host him in the coming weeks. He said Sunday during his Tennessee Select 7-on-7 team’s practice at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, Tenn., that he’s also looking into a possible trip to Notre Dame on March 19, and he’s hoping to make it to Ohio State and Vanderbilt this spring. Another visit to Alabama, he said, is also a possibility.
First, he will get to take another look at Tennessee, which most recently hosted him in October for its home games against South Carolina and Ole Miss.
“I want to see if it’s still the same — still how it’s been and stuff,” said Herring, who’s ranked by 247Sports as the No. 53 overall prospect and No. 6 edge rusher in the 2023 class and the No. 1 junior from the state of Tennessee. “Obviously, Elijah, he’s been doing good. I’ve been hearing a lot of him.
“They’re still big on me. I’m going to continue to build that relationship with them.”
Herring is still intrigued by the possibility of joining his brother at Tennessee. But he said his brother, who’s one of the early enrollees from the Vols’ 2022 signing class, also has advised him to play wherever he wants to go.
“My brother, he really wants me to do my own thing,”
Caleb Herring said. “He said, like, ‘You can still consider (Tennessee), but I can’t choose for you.’ But I’m just, like, open to anybody right now. I’m trying to get out and see more schools.
“But Tennessee, I mean, they’re still a good school for me.”
The younger Herring said his brother, a former Riverdale standout who gave Tennessee its first commitment for the 2022 class in April, hasn’t been disappointed by his first weeks with the Vols.
“He’s told me he’s, like, really enjoying it,” Herring said, referring to his older brother. “He loves workouts, everything.”
With National Signing Day for the 2022 class now in the rearview mirror, Tennessee coach Josh Heupel’s staff recently has turned even more of its attention to the 2023 class. Herring said the Vols have continued to make him even more of a priority, talking with him on a weekly basis, led by outside linebackers coach
Mike Ekeler and Heupel himself.
“They’re just talking about family and stuff most of the time,” Herring said. “But sometimes they’ll bring up me, like, trying to go there with Elijah, and they’ll just talk about how Elijah’s doing, talking about how good he’s doing.
“They’re telling me I’m their number-one priority right now.”
But he said “a lot of schools are hard on me right now,” including Ohio State, Notre Dame, Ole Miss and Kentucky. He said some schools “that haven’t offered me yet” — Ohio State and Notre Dame are among them — also want to get him on campus, “and that’s when they’ll offer me.”
Herring said he might visit nearby Vanderbilt “sometime in April,” and he’s hoping to make it back to a couple other SEC schools.
“Georgia, they’ve been hitting me up and stuff, but they’re just now starting to get heavy on me, so I think I’ll take a visit out there,” he said. “Since (offensive line) coach (Eric) Wolford moved from Kentucky to Alabama, I should be able to go out there and visit, because I already have a pretty good relationship with him.”
While Herring said he’s not currently planning to announce his college decision this spring, his timeline for a commitment remains somewhat open-ended. The only thing he knows for now is that he wants to take more visits.
“I would say after I get done, like, visiting and camping and stuff, that’s when I should be open and making my decision,” he said.
