Previewing commitment day for Five-Star Plus+ OT David Sanders Jr.

Commitment day is finally here for one of the best prospects in the 2025 recruiting cycle.

Five-Star Plus+ offensive tackle David Sanders Jr. will announce his commitment at 1:15 p.m. ET, choosing between Georgia, Nebraska, Ohio State and Tennessee.

On Thursday evening, Sanders posted a video previewing his big moment on X:

See you Saturday… 🙏🏿⌛️ #agtg #hardworkworks pic.twitter.com/HAas1pjDBL

— David Sanders Jr. (@DavidLSandersJr) August 15, 2024

One school has emerged as the favorite to land Sanders as Tennessee began trending in the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine following On3’s Steve Wiltfong becoming the first to log a pick on Aug. 9.

“I just love Tennessee’s coaching staff,” Sanders said in May at the On3 Elite Series in Nashville. “Coach (Josh) Heupel and Coach (Glen) Elarbee, they do a great job with that personal connection. I think out of anybody, they do the best job calling, texting, just staying in contact with my parents and building that relationship.

“I just feel like you can be yourself at Tennessee. There’s nothing you have to do differently. Even though it’s a big SEC school that wins a lot of games and is in contention for winning National Championships year in and year out, that’s a place you can go and freely be yourself.”

The Volunteers have had Sanders on campus five times this year and have been a constant fixture at the top of his recruiting process. Nebraska, like Tennessee, had Sanders on campus for a visit at the end of July. Ohio State has also landed several visits from the five-star and has always been thought of as a real contender to land his pledge.

“The buzz is around the Checkered Orange,” Wiltfong wrote on Thursday. “We believe Sanders has his mind made up but the family continues to keep in contact with a few schools.”

More on the other finalists

Ohio State: “I would say they were always in the mix for sure, because I liked Ohio State. Obviously they’re known for making great offensive tackles … seeing that as a young kid, like I can go there and do the same thing. Ohio State got the bump early because I had only been there one time until recently. Ohio State is different, but they’ve done a phenomenal job, coming up there for the spring a couple of times and being around that program … I just think Coach (Justin) Frye is an amazing offensive line coach, he’s shown that he can develop guys and push them to the next level. He’s very passionate in everything that he’s doing … I feel like his coaching style and my playing style can mesh really good.”

Nebraska: “They really weren’t recruiting me early on in the process, but then when Dylan (Raiola) committed to Nebraska, he claims I was one of his first texts he sent out to recruit people. I had already had a relationship to him when he was committed to Georgia. Him coming out here saying how much he enjoyed Nebraska and the coaches, and how real they were from when they recruited him to when he was a true player, that really had a lot of impact on me.”

Georgia: “Georgia is Georgia. You want to go there, go to the NFL, that’s the place to go. Coach Smart has done a great job, me and Coach (Stacy) Searels have a great relationship, he’s been recruiting me since he was at UNC so me and him go way back. I think they’re doing a great job with the guys that they brought in in that 2024 class … Mason Short‘s coming in to Georgia and that’s one of my really good friends in this whole entire recruitment process. So Georgia’s done a great job, they were one of my early offers, my 10th offer as a freshman, so they’ve been on me really early, so Georgia’s always been at the top of the list.”