12/16/2023 football Edit

FLIP ALERT: Tennessee flips transfer safety Jakobe Thomas from Oregon State

Transfer safety Jakobe Thomas commits to Tennessee after previously landing at Oregon State.

Shayne Pickering • VolReport

Football Recruiting Reporter

There were two major areas of need that Tennessee looked to fill in the transfer portal.

Those two positions were tight end and defensive back. After filling the hole at tight end on Friday by landing Notre Dame transfer Holden Staes, the Vols turned their attention to the secondary.

MTSU transfer, Jakobe Thomas, originally committed to Oregon State, but has now flipped that decision in favor of Tennessee.

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Thomas is from Tennessee, playing his high school ball at Tullahoma High School before moving on to play under Rick Stockstill and the Blue Raiders. He redshirted his first year there but started to get some run in his second season.

Against FIU in the last game of the regular season, he showed his playmaking potential. He would go on to post five tackles and two interceptions. The first was a crucial pick-six and the second was a game-sealing interception that he nearly returned for a touchdown, as well.

This gave him the momentum going into his redshirt sophomore season at MTSU, where he was a significant factor around the line of scrimmage, posting 71 tackles and breaking up five passes.

In his two games against SEC opponents in Alabama and Missouri, he recorded a combined 14 tackles on a defense that had strong showings against two of the top teams in the conference last season.

With the skillset Thomas provides, he will bring more stability to the strong safety and STAR positions in the secondary for the next two years. He has great size at 6-foot-2, 190 pounds which allows him to deliver big hits and be a factor in the run game.

Adding an athletic playmaker with experience in those two spots will be huge for Tennessee as it attempts to replace the departures in the secondary.

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