Names can be hard. Hard to pronounce. Hard to spell. Hard to remember. Even two-time Oscar nominee and one-time Hollywood comeback king, John Travolta, once introduced actor/singer Idina Menzel as Adele Dazeem in 2014.
Perhaps to celebrate the tenth anniversary of that all-time gaffe, the Tennessee Volunteers football team managed to mangle the table placard of a highly sought after 5-star recruit with a slightly less challenging name: David Sanders Jr.
At a dinner during a recruitment visit, the Volunteers spelled his name "Davis," and X/Twitter let the team have it.
Lol good work @Vol_Football. Can’t spell and can’t cook pic.twitter.com/I2U5CLB60m
— Jordan Bowman (@JoBo0209) June 16, 2024
Can’t spell his name and serves the man a hockey puck
— Clemson Addict (@Clemson_Addict) June 16, 2024
He needs to come home to Clemson pic.twitter.com/hRxR8RFD2U
— Hasan (@SavedbyChristos) June 17, 2024
It seems appropriate to chastise the Volunteers for an easily avoidable spelling error… but going after the cooking like that? Venomous.
Fortunately for the Volunteers, Sanders Jr. took the spelling error in stride, even adding a bit of humor in a post on Instagram:
"They may have spelled my name wrong, but we all know it's a lil (Rocky) to get to the (Top) GBO."
It seems that to go along with the skills to become 24/7 Sports’ No. 1 offensive tackle and No. 3 overall recruit in its 2025 class, Sanders Jr. also has the kind of maturity and class head coaches across the country would love to insert into their locker room, making Sanders Jr. an even more desirable prospect.
Sanders Jr. has yet to make his final decision, so Tennessee and the handful of other lucky schools left on his short list, such as the ACC’s Clemson Tigers and fellow SEC rivals Georgia Bulldogs and Alabama Crimson Tide will have to hold their breaths a little longer to see where he decides to lend his coveted talents.
