Five-star edge rusher Elijah Rushing stays home, commits to Arizona

Tennessee was in this one until the end.

Tennessee made a big push for elite pass rusher Elijah Rushing, but in the end, the opportunity to stay home and play for the hometown team was too much to pass up on. Rushing picked Arizona over Tennessee, Oregon, UCLA and Notre Dame on Thursday evening.

The five-star edge rusher is the eighth overall player in the 2024 class, per 247Sports. He’s by far the top player in the state of Arizona, ranking as the top overall edge prospect in the country.

Despite his west coast roots, Tennessee was able to stay in this battle. Rodney Garner and Mike Ekeler certainly made a big impact here, forcing the talented pass rusher to consider coming all the way across the country. Rushing did just that a couple of times on visits, but the Volunteers couldn’t quite convince him to pull the trigger.

For what it’s worth, there was this interesting note from Austin Price of VolQuest on Thursday. Perhaps this one isn’t quite done just yet.

Obviously a big get for the Wildcats — Arizona jumped up to 38th overall in the 2024 class rankings, per 247Sports. That was the 14th commitment for Jedd Fisch in the cycle.

Tennessee will keep working on Rushing, but they’ll keep after Jordan Ross too. The five-star pass rusher out of Birmingham has been weighing out Tennessee against Florida in recent weeks, also getting to Knoxville for a visit on the weekend of the 23rd. Williams Nwaneri and Danny Okoye are also still on the board.

Expect plenty of movement over the next few weeks as we cruise into the opening of fall camps.