A pair of Tennessee Vols players are largely responsible for helping UT flip 4-star recruit from Alabama

Earlier this week, the Tennessee Vols made a big recruiting splash by flipping 2025 four-star linebacker Jaedon Harmon from the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Harmon, 6-foot-1/215 lbs from Rome, GA, is rated in 247Sports' composite rankings as the No. 18 linebacker in the nation and the No. 19 player in state of Georgia. He had been committed to Alabama since April.

Tennessee continued to recruit Harmon after he committed to the Crimson Tide. New Vols linebackers coach William Inge (who replaced Brian Jean-Mary at UT after the 2023 season) quickly built a solid relationship with the Georgia native.

According to VolQuest's Austin Price, Tennessee linebackers Arion Carter and Edwin Spillman provided some assurance to Harmon that Inge is a great coach to play for.

"Truth be told, Jaedon Harmon had Tennessee out in front many, many, many months ago," said Price during an appearance on Josh and Swain this week. "And then Brian Jean-Mary left and went to Michigan. Insert William Inge and he (Harmon) didn't know anything about Inge. Inge has predominantly recruited the west coast and so he just went with people he knew at Alabama. He picked Alabama and Tennessee just kind of kept recruiting him and just trying to chip away at him. Inge did a really nice job of kinda showing who he is.

"In talking to Jaedon Harmon, one of the things he did was he picked up the phone and called Edwin Spillman, then he called Arion Carter, and he said 'hey guys, what's this guy like to play for?' And there was no bigger advocate for Coach Inge than those two. So, I think he just started to give Tennessee more and more of a look and eventually got the point where he decided he wanted to flip to the Vols."

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Flipping an elite recruit from Alabama is no small feat. That's something that hasn't happened often in recent years. And it was a full group effort to make it happen.

But that's what the top programs in the nation do. It can't just be the head coach and his staff -- it has to be everyone involved with the program. And when it comes to Harmon, it sounds like a couple of Vols played a big role in helping Tennessee win that recruiting battle.

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