Julian Nixon commits, Tennessee continues to roll

Dylan Brooks committed Sunday.

Kamar Wilcoxson committed Monday.

And, as planned all along, Julian Nixon committed to Tennessee Thursday.

"Us three have been on a group chat since Kamar decommitted from Florida talking about this, so this has been the plan for a little while now," said Nixon.

"I have thought about committing to Tennessee for a while now, so we came up with this plan, and Tennessee got three big commitments in a row."

Auburn was the childhood favorite. Nixon, a 6-foot-4, 225 pound wide receiver out of Roswell (Ga.) Centennial grew up a die-hard Tiger fan, with much of family feeling the same, but as he went through the recruiting process, that love faded, and the Vols pulled ahead.

A couple of months ago, Tennessee started to surge, and since that time, commitment has been on Nixon's mind.

"Tennessee has always been in the back of my mind as a top school. They were in my top seven (Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Ohio State and Oklahoma were the other schools) back in December and some felt Tennessee was one of the lower schools on the list.

"As soon as I put my top seven out, people were saying Tennessee wasn't like the other schools on my list, but I did not see it that way at all. I have been thinking Tennessee is a great program, it is on its way back up and I have a great chance to make an impact there.

"I just kept thinking about Tennessee, and they continued to show love, they recruited me the hardest, they treat me great and I feel great about my decision. I can be part of Tennessee that starts to beat the other SEC schools and get them back to where they used to be.

"I talked to my dad about this about a week or so ago and made the final decision. I have felt like this for a while though."

Nixon called Jeremy Pruitt and multiple members of the Tennessee staff to deliver the news Sunday night. He has only tripped to Knoxville once, and that visit was last spring, but he knows he wants to call that home in the future.

"I spent a couple of days there last spring to watch practice and it kind of had that home feeling," said Nixon. "I like the coaches, I had that comfortable feeling there and Tennessee is right for me.

"It is kind of crazy how it all happened. I have been recruited since my freshman year, so this decision is like a relief. It has been up and down, so it has been a lot to handle and I have dreamed of this.

"I started crying when talking to my mom about this Sunday night, so I was a little emotional about it. I have thought about this for a long time and it feels great to be committed to Tennessee."