I saw on the 247 link above that Norwood received the Tenn offer on signing day. I thought that it was weird that he then decommitted given he would have had a signed LOI. So I went digging...
Dec 2017 - Jeremy Pruitt hired at Tenn
2/3/18 - Unofficial visit to Tenn. I'll note Norwood was allowed to take 2 more official visits at this time but this was just an unofficial
2/7/18 - He got the Tenn offer signing day but didn't sign LOI (who knows what was promised to him this day)
- At some point its determined he will blueshirt (makes no sense to me why he would be offered on signing day but then blueshirt as the whole reason to blueshirt is you accidently gave out too many scholarships, which shouldn't happen if you are offering him a scholarship on signing day. I'll note that you can only blueshirt if you did not take an official visit.)
3/20/18 - 4/21/18 - Tenn spring ball
4/8/18 - Decommitts from Tenn (my wild a$$ guess is Tenn may have been dangling the scholarship offer with the expectation that a scholarship would open up during spring ball, which is why there was no LOI in Feb)
4/8/18 - Immediately commits to another in state school that he had gone on an official visit too on 1/12/18. Its stated in an article that MTSU never stopped recruiting him which makes sense why the decommit and commit are the same day. He left Tenn to go to MTSU (versus finding MTSU after leaving
- UMass catches on that he wasn't at Tenn and starts recruiting him again. I'll note that they had three coaches go to an in home visit back on 1/18/18, just 7 days prior to him going on an official at UMass (perhaps UMass didn't have a spot for him until the conclusion of their spring ball / start of summer workouts / players graduating and if Norwood would have actually not even committed to MTSU)
6/10/18 - Joseph thinks UMass >MTSU and/or likes the opportunity to play right away (something that seem to cause the decommit from Tenn)
9/25/19 - Leaves UMass after 4th game cause he is "home sick." I'll note that by leaving before 5th game he could then just redshirt the 2019 season and retain eligibility. Coach is quoted saying "This is something that's been ongoing probably well before I got here. Not in the Transfer Portal yet but we're going to support him in every way, shape, or form. We would love to have JoJo here, he's a really good and is going to be an unbelievable player in the future. I'll also not that his first two commitments were to in state schools and then he was suddenly at a school in the northeast.
12/12/19 - Commits to JMU, rejoining Brian Philips who coached at UMass with Norwood, and getting closer to home.
Sooooo it is hard to look past the commit, decommit, commit, decommit, commit, transfer, leave program; but I don't think it is as bad as it seems. The guy hasn't played football in 15 months, who knows what is going through his head.
https://tennessee.rivals.com/news/joseph...d-for-mtsu
https://247sports.com/college/massachuse...136115111/
I did find this little nugget too. "During this recruiting cycle, I [Greg Madia] spoke to or at least exchanges messages with all 14 of JMU’s signees. Of the 14, Norwood was the only one hesitant to do an interview and actually, respectfully denied the request. He said though he was honored about a possible story, that he preferred to wait until he performed on the field with the Dukes."
https://www.dnronline.com/sports/college...f98a2.html