Why Vanderbilt commit Omarii Sanders plans on visiting Tennessee next week

Nashville athlete Omarii Sanders committed to Vanderbilt last fall. But next week he plans on being in Knoxville to visit Tennessee. Why give Rocky Top another look?

“I would just say the conversations that I’ve had with the coaches,” Sanders said. “They have still been good, just keeping that relationship has definitely become a reason why.”

He had a call with Tennessee’s staff on Friday. It was a talk with linebackers coach William Inge and new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles.

“I really see that he’s a real smart guy,” Sanders said. “He definitely knows what he’s talking about. I can kind of see he definitely what he’s talking about for sure. It was more just kind of getting to know each other. Just seeing how I’ve been, what I’m up to, and that’s really about it. That kind of the biggest takeaway was seeing the guy that’s trying to build a relationship with somebody.”

They also spoke some about how Sanders would fit into Knowles defense. He plans on being in Knoxville next week for the start of spring practice. It’s an opportunity to watch the staff coach and continued to build those relationships. 

“I’m really just trying to see how they’re going to be without defensive coordinator Coach Banks, just seeing how they’re going to bounce back from that just really seeing how they how their coaches coach their players. I would say those conversations are huge. I mean, it really shows how they coach and how they are toward their players and you can’t really hide from the truth. It just shows how they are every day and what they are like to play for.”

Tennessee is recruiting him as a linebacker and that’s why talking to Inge makes a ton of sense.

“I would definitely say he’s very passionate about what he does and he’s very enthusiastic about his work and you can definitely say that he cares about, his players.”

At 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds, Sanders offers plenty of versatility. He predominantly has played in the secondary in high school at FRA where his dad, Ed is the defensive coordinator.

“I haven’t really played linebacker at all in high school. So I would just say I can bring my physicality, how smart I am, using the kind of ball skills I use at Safety.”

He did practice and play some at linebacker in the under Armour All-American game along with the Polynesian bowl back in December and January. It gave him an opportunity to take a look at himself playing linebacker, and he was pleasantly surprised. 

“I definitely surprised myself,” Sanders said. “I mean never doing it and that be my 1st time doing it on such a big stage like that was definitely a little nerves right here at first. But I mean, at the end of the day, it’s just it’s just football, so just go get the ball, get it down.”