After being committed to playing baseball for Tennessee since 2021, incoming freshman Amari Jefferson flipped his commitment last August to play baseball and football at Alabama.
“I came off my first visit and told my dad I wanted to commit on the spot and he told me I had to wait.” Jefferson told Sports Illustrated about his flip to Alabama.
Jefferson first committed to Tennessee in June 2021 to play baseball. He toured Alabama for the first time and Tennessee again in 2023 before switching his commitment in August 2023 and enrolling in May 2024.
“I knew in my head it was going to be Alabama, but I wanted to make absolutely sure,” Jefferson said.
Although the native of Chattanooga, Tennessee, was committed to playing baseball before football, he doesn’t lack talent in either and will likely be an asset to both programs.
As a 4-star receiver, he helped lead Baylor School to a state championship in his junior year. He was Tennessee’s 2023 DII-AAA Mr. Football after amassing 1,401 yards and 20 touchdowns on 74 receptions.
“Alabama is getting a dynamic playmaker,” Baylor School head football coach Erik Kimrey said. “He can score any time he touches [the ball] from anywhere on the field. What separates him is the way he approaches the game. He’s an elite competitor who’s also very intelligent.”
According to On3, Jefferson is currently ranked as the 34th-best high school wide receiver in the country and the sixth-best high school football player in Tennessee.
Although he initially signed to play with former head coach Nick Saban, saying his decision “came down to how he develops receivers,” he decided to stick with the program after Saban’s departure.
“I think the future of the program is in great shape with Coach DeBoer leading it and the new coaching staff they brought in,” Jefferson told BamaOnLine. “I don’t think we’re going to be going anywhere anytime soon.”
DeBoer shared the same excitement about Jefferson, saying at SEC Media Day in July that the receiver was “extremely talented” and “highly touted”
In the diamond, Jefferson is just as dominant. He had a Perfect Game score of 9.5 — designating him a “potential top 10 round pick and/or highest level college prospect” — a .436 batting average his senior year, and a .547 on-base percentage his senior year.
“His ceiling athletically is as high as anybody I’ve ever coached,” Baylor School head baseball coach Greg Elie said. “What he’s been able to do splitting his time between sports, to go from a 7-on-7 camp to hitting a 98 mph fastball is really tough to do. His skill set is sensational.”
With his impressive stats come rankings to match. According to Perfect Game, Jefferson is ranked 273rd overall and 48th as an outfielder; however, in Tennessee alone, he is ranked sixth overall and second as an outfielder.
“For a guy who spends half his time playing another sport, it’s scary to think what he could evolve into being,” Kimrey said. “The sky’s the limit for Amari.”
