In-state defender wavering on Tennessee commitment, reaches out to USC

Defensive end Tre Lawson of North Augusta committed to Tennessee last summer, but he said Saturday he no longer considers himself bound by that and is considering other options.

Lawson has not announced an official decommitment but plans to do that soon.

“Technically I am (still committed) but I won’t be in a week or two,” he said. “Everyone in my circle is OK with it. I’ll publicize it later. Nothing bad happened. They’ve just got a lot of stuff going on around the program and I don’t feel the same about the program anymore.”

Lawson, who made five tackles in Saturday’s Touchstone Energy North-South Game, has 17 offers at this point including South Carolina, Tennessee, Southern Cal, Florida State, Illinois, Ole Miss, Georgia and Louisville.

Lawson said he’s reached out to USC in an effort to re-establish contact but has not received a response.

“I said, ‘Hey, coaches, how are you doing? Sorry about the contact. It would be nice if we could start talking again,’ ” Lawson said. “If they don’t want to do that, I’m not tripping. It is what it is.”

Lawson has set an official visit to Louisville Jan. 13. He’s also looking at Florida State and South Florida for official visits.

This season Lawson had 86 tackles with 12 sacks and 19 tackles for loss.

This story was originally published December 11, 2016 at 1:35 PM with the headline "In-state defender wavering on Tennessee commitment, reaches out to USC."