“It’s definitely gotten tough,” he said Thursday. “Being away from Michigan for a while has definitely gotten tough, because you see all these other schools and you don’t get to go to the school that you’re committed to because of the distance. It’s definitely gotten tough, and you start thinking about this and that, this and that.
“But I believe it’ll all work out in the end and I’ll pick the right school.”
Gray said he’s still planning to take official visits to Ole Miss and Alabama in December with the Rebels scheduled to host him the weekend of Dec. 7. He’s also hoping to return to Michigan on Nov. 3 for the Wolverines' game against Penn State.
While Gray remains committed to the Wolverines, he said he “definitely will” announce a final decision on Dec. 19, the first day of the early signing period, before enrolling at the school of his choice in January.
Despite his continued involvement with Tennessee, Ole Miss, Alabama and Mississippi State, he said he’s still committed to Michigan because of “just how I felt in June” during his official visit to Ann Arbor, Mich., before committing to the Wolverines on July 1.
“I know that being away from them kind of impacts my decision, but how I felt when I was there is the thing that keeps me committed — and the players, the group chats that we’re in, where we go back and forth laughing and joking,” said Gray, who’s ranked the No. 210 overall prospect and No. 3 all-purpose back in the industry-generated 247Sports Composite for the 2019 class.
He visited the Vols on Saturday for the second time in less than a month.
“With it being six hours away — not that far from home, an easy drive for my family — I really have thought about it, for sure,” Gray said.
He said he returned to Tennessee last week because he was interested in “just going back again and hanging out with the players again,” and he “wanted my sister to get a chance to see” it.
“It was a great trip,” Gray said. “Knoxville is a great place. My parents love it there. My sister got to go with me this time. She loved it in Knoxville. Just evaluating the team, Tennessee, to me, doesn’t look bad this year. Even though the score was, like, 58-21, they don’t look bad. Like (first-year Tennessee coach
Jeremy Pruitt) said, you take away the first quarter and it’s 30-21.
“And he needs his players. Pruitt needs his players.”
Pruitt, Tennessee running backs coach
Chris Weinke and wide receivers coach
David Johnson spoke with Gray during the visit, and Gray said they told him that he “could really help them, and you see that they need players and different stuff like that.”
“I like his vision that he has for the program,” Gray said of Pruitt. “I really think he’s going to end up turning it around once he gets his players in there. He was the (defensive) coordinator at Alabama when they won all those championships, so he knows how to win and he knows what he needs to win.
“Just listening to him, and you’ve got Coach Weinke. He’s a Heisman Trophy (winner) at quarterback, so he’s going to teach you everything from a quarterback’s standpoint as a running back. Having that knowledge of a past Heisman Trophy winner — I mean, they have a good, all-star staff there.”
He’s also intrigued by the possibility of being only true running back in Tennessee’s 2019 recruiting class.
“I mean, you can’t rule out Tennessee because they’re taking one back this year,” Gray said. “Everybody else is taking two and three, three and four backs in the 2019 class. But Tennessee is saying they want one back, so you have to look at it.”
Gray said he’s eager to take another look at Ole Miss and Alabama, too.
“I think it’ll be good to visit Alabama,” he said. “Alabama, you have to visit the number-one team. You’ve got to give them a shot, just to see what they have and see how I’d fit into the system.
“And with Ole Miss, it’s just so close to home — really, the closest school to me besides, like, the University of Memphis. But it’s just so close to home that you’ve got to look and you’ve got to see what they’re like — if you came into their system, how you’d feel around the players and different stuff like that.”
He’s still hoping to get back to Michigan next weekend, too, for his first game at Michigan Stadium.
“If I get a chance to go back up there, I definitely want to see how it is in a game atmosphere,” Gray said. “The game atmosphere and how it is hanging around, because I know a lot of the other commits are going to be there. How it is hanging out with them and hanging out with players. How do I intermingle with the team? And just different stuff like that.
“The cold, for sure — how cold is it? — and different things like that.”
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