St. Thomas Aquinas High School in South Florida is absolutely loaded this year with defensive backs. They claim the #1 corner Lamarcus Joyner who is already scheduled to visit UT for the Auburn game. Cody Riggs, the brother of former VOL Gerald Riggs, is another Raiders db who has the VOLS on his short list.
Keion Payne is another one you can add to the list that has strong interest in the VOLS.
Like Riggs and Joyner, Payne (6'0-168) has over 20 offers and lists the VOLS high on his list.
Payne told Rivals.com "In no particular order I really have five schools that stand out in Florida State, Miami, West Virginia, Tennessee and Ole Miss are the programs I like the best right now. I don't have a leader or a favorite at this point though. Miami and Tennessee are on me the hardest at this point and FSU is starting to really come on lately."
Payne is being recruited by non-other than Eddie Gran and Monte Kiffin.
"Tennessee, I know they are getting one for sure (official visit). Miami will on for sure. If Ohio State comes through with an offer, they will get one. You know, I don't know who else though," Payne told SoFlaFootball.com.
Like Joyner and Riggs, getting Payne to leave the state of Florida won't be easy. Joyner is thought to be favoring the Seminoles and could possibly commit at Seminole Showtime. Riggs lists Georgia ahead of the VOLs. Payne spoke very highly of the hometown Hurricanes after visiting them recently.
The fact is, Eddie Gran is a common threat to all the Florida schools who hope to land the state's top prospects. When a top prospect mentions his top 5 teams, you can almost expect to hear UT just as much as you can expect to hear any of the Big 3 Florida schools.
UT has already landed the nation's top kicker Michael Palardy from STA and hopefully he won't be the last.
