Ty Simpson, a freshman yet to play a down in high school, gets offer from UT Vols

The first time Ty Simpson visited the University of Tennessee was eight years ago. He cried in the tunnel after the Vols defeated UT Martin 50-0. 

Simpson's father, Jason Simpson, is the football coach at UT Martin. 

Eight years later, it was a different emotion for Ty and his family. On Tuesday, Simpson, who will be a freshman quarterback in the fall at Westview High School, picked up an offer from UT. 

"Coming (Tuesday) I was pretty excited and a lot better coming out with an offer," Simpson said. 

This is the fourth offer Simpson has received. His first one came from Michigan and coach Jim Harbaugh. Since then, Simpson has been on the map for almost every SEC team and other teams nationally because of how mature and developed he is at this stage. 

Kentucky and Mississippi State were the other two offers before coach Jeremy Pruitt and his staff decided to extend an offer to Simpson. 

Simpson was visiting UT with his family, and he instantly hit it off with the Vols staff. One thing that stood out to him was Pruitt's background coming from a football family. 

"One of the things I loved about him is that he's a coach's son," Simpson said. "He's just like me and he knows how I'm programmed and he knows that I know a lot more than other kids do, so that makes it comforting."

Simpson has yet to take a snap at the high school level. Because of how much buzz he's generated on the recruiting circuit at 15 years old, he's aware he'll have a target on his back. 

But that doesn't nullify how much each offers means to him. 

"It means a lot," Simpson said. "With all the hype beforehand, we all know at the end of the day I gotta perform well on Friday nights and win a couple of games."

Reach Luis Torres at ltorres1@jacksonsun.com or 731-425-9638 and follow him on Twitter @LFTorresIII.