Recruiting Spotlight 10-12-11

Photo courtesy of Scout.com

This week’s recruiting spotlight athlete is Imani Cross.  Imani is currently a senior at North Hall High School in Gainesville Georgia.  He is listed at 6’1” 220 pound 3running back.  He is a 4* running back and 19th best running back prospect per ESPN.

Imani verbally committed to UT on 2/28/11 after being recruited by Terry Joseph.  Imani had several other schools that had interest him including:

·         UCLA

·         Georgia Tech

·         Maryland

·         Virginia

·         Mississippi State

·         UCF

·         South Carolina

According to scouting reports Imani shows unusual power, runs hard between the tackles, and has proven to be very difficult to bring down.  Imani is capable to get tough inside yards, he can run, catch, and block very effectively.

Imani’s sophomore year at Flowery Branch High School he rushed for 1407 yards and 17 touchdowns.  After his sophomore year he transferred to North Hall High School where he suffered a torn Achilles in the first spring practice.

The injury sidelined Imani for the first five games of the 2010 season; however in his first game back he rushed for 200 yards.  Also had the his best performance in the final game of the year against Oconee County by scoring 5 touchdowns (3 rushing, 1 reception, and 1 interception return) finishing the game with 190 rushing yards and 73 reception yards.  At the end of the his shortened season Imani had racked up some pretty impressive stats; 586 rushing yards on 63 carries averaging 9.3 yards a carry, 175 reception yards, and led his team with 16 touchdowns.

Imani Cross stated that he felt welcome from the first time he stepped foot on UTs campus.  I believe Imani has a very bright future here at UT and we all know that our running game needs some immediate help.  Imani is a true future VFL.

Go Vols

JW