In-State OL Brycen Sanders Talks Vols Camp, Elarbee, Heupel, and More
Brycen Sanders has already had an action-packed first week of summer recruiting. The Chattanooga (Tenn.) Baylor School offensive lineman made trips to Vanderbilt and Georgia before camping at Tennessee's "Night at Neyland" event of Friday. Following the event, Sanders discussed the trip with VR2 on SI.
"It was fun," Sanders said of his time in Knoxville. We got there about three o'clock, and my dad and I got to talk to Coach Heupel for about 10 minutes individually. Then, we spent about 45 minutes with Coach Elarbee. We talked a lot about football. We went over film, talked about my offense in high school and Tennessee's offense and how I would fit in. It was great to see him in person and talk ball, especially with him and my dad knowing each other for a long time. It was great to see the facilities, and all of the weight room and all of that."
"What stood out to the most was talking to the coach Elarbee and Heupel individually," Sanders added about the trip to Knoxville. "It definitely helped me a lot, and it helped me with footwork, which I am going to use in high school. That is what impressed me the most."
Elarbee and Brycen's dad, Gary Sanders, played together on the offensive line at Middle Tennessee State University in the late '90s and early 2000s.
"It was definitely fun to see," Sanders said of the reunion between the two former teammates. "I think he was maybe more excited than me to be there. He loves Coach Elarbee, so that was a great time."
"It was great," Sanders said of having the chance to workout for Elarbee. "There wasn't a big group of offensive linemen there, maybe 8 or 10, so he was really able to work with me and help me, so it was really great having him work with me and coach me up and knowing how good of a coach he is, and really getting a chance to see how he could coach me up in college."
The Volunteers' staff sees Sanders as a guard prospect, as he is physical and displays excellent hand placement and footwork with a high football IQ, and they have let it be known he is a priority for them in the 2023 class.
"It definitely makes me feel welcome," Sanders said of being invited to a select-invite camp. "It makes you feel like a priority to the home state, and they talked to me a bunch about how they need to keep in-state kids and how big of a priority I am because I am on the line, and that is where the game is one."
Before the Tennessee visit, Sanders worked out for the staff at Georgia, and he had an opportunity to take in their new 80 million dollar facilities.
"Georgia's facilities were great," Sanders said. "They just opened up a couple of weeks ago, but they were phenomenal. The coaching staff was great. I spent a lot of time talking to Coach Matt Luke and Coach Jancek, and the camp was great, too."
All of these trips are a first for Sanders, and he is hoping to use them as a building block for his future recruitment.
"I am hoping to build on the relationships with the coaches since I have not seen any of them in person," Sanders said. This is my first time doing any of this stuff, so I just want to pay attention to every little detail, all of the coaches, and just build relationships with them. All of these programs I am going to have great programs, so it is just going to the camps, and being able to work with them individually is only going to help me get better. I am just going to take one thing from each of them, and hopefully, I will be able to put that into my game."
While minutely analyzing the details of each school, Sanders knows what he is looking for in each program to see if it could officially be his home.
"Probably just how I relate to the coaches, how they care about the players, and how the facilities tailor to a player, " he said. "That is my main focus is looking at how the coaches take care of their players."
Following this slate of June visits, Sanders will focus on his junior season, and he will handle his recruitment as it comes. "It is a culture shock since I have never done any of this before. I am just hoping to get a feel for all of the programs, and after June, I am going to focus on the season. I will stay in contact with the coaches and go on game visits, but during the season, my main focus is going to be the football season. Next winter, probably January or February, is when I will narrow my list down."