North Hall’s Jeremiah Telander is just scratching the surface of what is going to be a wild recruiting process. 

After picking up his first official scholarship offer for football from the University of Tennessee on June 1, things have hit another gear in the eyes of college coaches who are going out of their way to have Telander on campus for camps and clinics.

As a sophomore in 2020, Telander had 143 tackles, five sacks and caused three fumbles for North Hall en route to being tabbed Region 7-3A Defensive Player of the Year. 

“Jeremiah’s got that drive and desire to be successful,” North Hall coach David Bishop said. “He’s blessed with great height, size and strength. Plus, he’s very coachable and has a high motor.”

And, with the nature of Division-I recruiting, once one Power-5 school offers a prospect, it usually results in many more coming right around the corner. 

At 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds, the rising junior spent Thursday at a camp at the University of Georgia and there he picked up a scholarship offer from Memphis. 

The rest of the month, Telander will have more camps to attend and Bishop will be fielding calls and answering messages from inquiring schools. 

“I’m having the time of my life,” said Telander, who has a natural instinct for getting to the ball carrier in the opposing backfield. “My hard work is paying off.”

In football, the junior season is the biggest tool used for evaluation by college scouts. In the case of Telander, who already has a pair of Division-I offers before his junior season, a good start to 2021 could result in an avalanche of offers from bigger college programs. 

Born in Indiana, Telander has lived in Georgia since he was 5 and doesn’t mind saying that nothing would make him happier than an offer from the Bulldogs. 

Next week, Telander will attend camp at Georgia Tech. 

Once June ends, Telander said contact on campus with the colleges ends and he’ll focus fully on preparing for what he expects to be a good run next season at North Hall. 

In 2020, the Trojans were Region 7-3A runner-up and won in the first round of state against North Murray in Gainesville. 

Telander’s production on both sides of the ball had a lot to do with North Hall’s success. 

Not only is the well-developed Telander a constant presence on defense, but he’s also solid tight end as a blocker for a Trojans’ offense that runs the ball the majority of the time. 

With a quick first step, Telander can also drop back in coverage and routinely breaks up passes. 

However, his first instinct is to blast through the line of scrimmage. 

In a one-one-one situation, Telander almost always makes the stop, as evidenced by his game tapes. 

After such a strong sophomore season, Telander can expect ample double-team blocks to try and neutralize his impact over his final two high school seasons. 

One of the main components that helps Telander, he said, is taking part in different sports all during the school year. In the spring, Telander was fourth in the high jump in Class 3A at state with a mark of 6-4. He’s looking to become more proficient in the throws (shot put and discus) too. 

Also, Telander is a talented basketball player. 

With such a natural vertical jumping ability, he makes dunking look easy, even as a player with ample upper-body mass. 

Telander said he will continue to do all three sports. He said it helps in working muscle groups that might not get the same benefit from football. 

North Hall’s highly-regarded linebacker prospect comes from a football family. 

His father, Steve Telander, played football in the 1970s at the University of Massachusetts. After two seasons as a high school coach in New Hampshire, Jeremiah’s father went into college coaching with stints as defensive line coach at Massachusetts (1980-85), outside linebackers coach at Texas-El Paso (1986-1989), outside linebackers coach at Missouri (1990-93) and finally coached inside linebackers at Bowling Green (1994-1996). 

Now, he works in the private business sector and sells insurance, Jeremiah said.

Having a father who played football at a high level and coached in college, Jeremiah said he’s been able to learn many valuable lessons from their conversations about the game and getting noticed. 

“My dad has given me lots of good advice like listen to your coaches, look people in the eyes, be the first in line for drills and always run on the practice field between drills,” Jeremiah said. 

After the month ends, college coaches will not be able to have contact with prospective players again until Sept. 1. 

Then in-person visits will begin and Telander will be a guest to watch games in person.