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Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Recruiting: DT Mike Sawyers Commits to Tennessee

The Jackets' top remaining prospect has committed at last, but unfortunately not to the team we were hoping he would.

By Joey Weaver
Where's the beef?
Where's the beef?
Danny Karnik/Georgia Tech Athletics

The tale of Sawyers is too good to abbreviate, so let's start from the beginning.

Mike Sawyers, a 6'2", 307lb defensive tackle from Nashville who is awesome at both run-stopping and pass-rushing, committed to his hometown Vanderbilt Commodores on July 10, 2013. He remained committed for just over 6 months, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

On December 6, 2013, Houston Texans coach Gary Kubiak was fired, creating a void that just under four weeks later (on January 2, 2014) would be filled by Penn State head coach Bill O'Brien. That left a void at Penn State, that would be filled by a hometown hero who was having unprecedented success at an SEC program. Yes, Vanderbilt's James Franklin accepted the Penn State job 9 days after O'Brien left for the NFL, and shortly thereafter Vanderbilt's best recruiting class ever was becoming a grease fire.

Part of that involved the de-commitment of Sawyers, just five days after Franklin's departure.

From there, Sawyers had interest mainly from Georgia Tech, Ole Miss, and Tennessee, but also from Notre Dame and others. The three main schools would all get visits, in that order, and many recruiting analysts were left in the dark on what to expect come signing day. The saga has come to a close, and Sawyers has picked Tennessee. The Yellow Jackets have once again missed on a top recruit against other schools in the region.

Thoughts on Mike Sawyers' commitment? How disappointed are you?

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