UT Vols: Tennessee football's Melvin McBride among four Power-5 Whitehaven signees

This was the moment that Melvin McBride had been waiting for since he committed to the Tennessee Vols on Aug. 22.

McBride was one of four Whitehaven players to sign with FBS schools on Wednesday, the first day of the early signing period.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time,” McBride said. “I believe that Coach (Jeremy) Pruitt is trying to turn Tennessee into the next Alabama and I believe in what he’s doing. If I didn’t believe that then I wouldn’t have committed there.”

Whitehaven receiver Keveon Mullins signed with South Carolina, athlete Devin Boddie signed with Vanderbilt and tight end Cormontae Hamilton signed with Ohio State.

Coaching talent like this isn’t something new to Whitehaven coach Rodney Saulsberry. The last two seasons, the Tigers have produced three SEC players. The 2012 class was the last time that a Whitehaven team produced more than two Power-Five prospects in the same class.

This class was something different though. Four is the most Power-Five players that Whitehaven has ever produced from one class.

“It’s a testament to the hard work these guys have put in,” Saulsberry said. “It’s a mission of ours to help use football as a tool to help them further their education. These young men have done a great job in that.

“They qualified academically to these schools and they backed it up with their play on the field. Now they can go on to do great things with their lives."

Losing that much talent from a team that made a run to the Class 6A state championship game would hurt most teams. However, Whitehaven isn’t like most teams.

The Tigers return a strong core of players next year led by inside linebackers Bryson Eason and Martavius Fench. Eason is ranked as the No. 9 prospect in the state and Fench is 11th. Whitehaven also returns three other players who are ranked highly in the state in next year’s class.

Saulsberry hopes that those incoming seniors and the other players returning next year take some motivation away from watching their teammates sign with these top programs.

“It plays a great motivational factor to those younger players,” Saulsberry said. “We’re not new to this and we take great pride in sending our players to those programs. Some years are obviously better than others but we have a great group of young guys watching these guys up here today and we hope it motivates them.”

More: Horn Lake's Nakobe Dean, nation's top inside linebacker, commits to Georgia

More: Where Memphis high school football players are signing during the early period

Reach Joe Spears at jspears2@gannett.com or 731-343-4923. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter @joe_spears7.