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Elite Offensive Lineman Mauigoa Set to Visit Tennessee This Weekend

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Tennessee's Memorial Day weekend recruiting event is set to be the biggest of the Josh Heupel era. Multiple elite recruits from across the country are coming to campus, including arguably the nation's top offensive lineman, Francis Mauigoa. The IMG Academy (Fla.) standout via San Bernadino (Calif.) confirmed to Volunteer Country and Sports Illustrated on Thursday night he would be in Tennessee beginning this Friday. 

"I am still taking the process slow," Mauigoa recently told Sports Illustrated's Director of Recruiting John Garcia. "I may release my top five at the end of this month; then I will take my official visits to those five schools."

Miami, USC, and Alabama are three programs Mauigoa knows will make the final cut for him, so this weekend's visit to Tennessee will be an important one for the Vols to show well. 

The uptick in this recruitment started when Tennessee landed one of Mauigoa's long-time friends, Nico Iamaleava. 

"Nico from Tennessee is one of my boys from California," Mauigoa told Garcia of this. "I didn't really know Tennessee was hitting me up on Twitter because I don't really use it that much. So, I didn't know they were hitting me up there. Nico told me they were trying to recruit me, so that kind of started it."

Iamaleava will also be in Knoxville this weekend for multiple days, so the two will be able to rec-connect during the visit. 

Multiple Tennessee coaches were at IMG's spring game last week to watch Mauigoa, Tate and others perform, and offensive line Coach Glen Elarbee was also in the area earlier in the month. 

Mauigoa says he would like to make a decision in "probably July or August," so Tennessee will need to continue to work fast in this one, but rest assured, Glen Elarbee has worked the Vols into a solid position in this recruitment already, as they will look to make a move even more this weekend. 

featured image via Zach Goodall