Vols add quality preferred walk-on from local HS in Eunique Valentine
Tennessee is still making additions to their 2020 recruiting class, but this time it comes in the form of a preferred walk-on Valentine. Valentine, a local standout from Knoxville Central high school, made the announcement from his twitter account earlier today. He breaks down the decision here.
Valentine said, “First off, it’s a great opportunity to play for the University of Tennessee. It’s always been a dream to play big time football. Especially, playing in my hometown, it feels unreal.”
Valentine played for a Central team who are coming off of back-to-back State Championships. Those state championship runs helped Valentine garner attention from college programs. He was originally committed and planning to go to Navy, until he received the opportunity to be a preferred walk-on at Tennessee.
While Valentine turned away other scholarship offers, he has a plan to earn one at Tennessee. He said, “as far as the pwo goes, I’m on the team and now I have to do my part and earn the scholarship by working hard and staying focused. I’ll redshirt my first year to get bigger and smarter with the playbook and by the next year hopefully have a full ride and be ahead of the other freshman.”
Tennessee is going to give Valentine the opportunity to play at any of the LB positions, and he will get to do so in his hometown. He said on this, “Lastly, it feels great to play in my hometown and still have my family close which is most important to me. TN is getting great young man. I don’t want to make it a sob story but my moms raised a wonderful person. She raised me so well, and she did it by her self for a very long time. So with that, it drives me to push harder and work harder.”