Chattanooga Keeping It All In-State With Fourth Commitment

BR-10 Chattanooga is four for four–Jonathan Decker’s an in-stater too. As of this week, he’s on board with the Moccasins.

Appalachian State, Army, Ball State, Charlotte and Eastern Michigan are FBS programs that extended offers, and Decker checked them all out, but the 2-star defensive lineman decided to keep it closer to home and play for the in-state FCS powerhouse Mocs. Austin Peay, Furman, Liberty, Mercer, Murray State, Southern Illinois and Tennessee Tech also offered from the FCS ranks, and Georgia Tech and Middle Tennessee are two other FBS schools showing interest.

Decker joins 3-star quarterback Zack Weatherly and Knoxville’s Cole Strange and Morristown’s DeAndre’ Delaney as the in-state quartet. Weatherly plays at Christ Presbyterian Academy in Nashville and Decker is at Alcoa.

“I’ve never met (Decker) but I’ve played against him,” Weatherly told HERO Sports after learning the news. “We have a great group.”

The two have actually played against each other before–their schools are 1-1 against each other the past three seasons. The awareness is there. Unlike SEC or Big Ten recruiting, where every tiny step of the recruiting process is documented by the recruit sites and every breath is recorded, sometimes at the FCS level news gets out at a slower rate.

“That’s cool, I didn’t realize (Weatherly) was committed to UTC until today,” Decker told HERO Sports. “There is a chance we will both make it back to state and play against each other again … I have a chance at UTC to win championships and get rings whether its conference champions or national. Some of the other schools that offered me were mid-major FBS schools. The cool thing about the FBS is that you got a chance to play in a bowl game, but I believe in the FCS playing for UTC I would have a better shot at winning a championship than going to a bowl game at an FBS schools.”

Here’s a look at Chattanooga’s recruiting class (star is based on 247Sports):