The waiting is finally over.

JJ Peterson is a Tennessee Vol.

The prized linebacker signee finally has been given the green light to head to Knoxville will join the Vols on Sunday after receiving word from the NCAA Eligibility Center on Friday, Rush Propst, his former coach at Colquitt County High School in Moultrie, Ga., told GoVols247 on Friday.

Tennessee confirmed later Friday evening that Peterson has enrolled.

Peterson is expected to begin practicing next week, though he'll have to go through the NCAA-mandated acclimation period before his first workout in full pads.

Ideally the 6-foot-2, 231-pounder would have been on campus for all of summer and all of camp to position himself to be an immediate contributor for the Vols as a freshman, but now Tennessee will have to work him into things while preparing for games every week, though college football's new redshirt rules, which allow players to play in four games at any point of a season and not lose a full season, mean the Vols can take it slowly with Peterson and perhaps unleash him later in the season.

Even though the No. 48 overall prospect and No. 3 outside linebacker in the industry-generated 247Sports Composite for the 2018 class had missed windows to head to Tennessee at the start of June, in early July and when the Vols opened preseason camp at the start of August, the Vols and head coach Jeremy Pruitt remained confident privately and publicly that Peterson ultimately would make it in.

JJ Peterson

And he's finally done so, a little less than a week after Tennessee began fall-semester classes and on Friday's deadline date to add or drop classes for the semester.

Peterson was the highest-ranked prospect in the 2018 recruiting class after picking the Vols over Alabama and Georgia in January. Pruitt at Alabama and Tennessee defensive coordinator Kevin Sherrer at Georgia were Peterson's primary recruiters in their previous jobs, so when they joined forces at Tennessee it made the Vols an easy pick for the star linebacker at Colquitt County High School in Moultrie, Ga.

"I think he's very hungry to get to Tennessee," Propst told GoVols247 earlier this summer. "He's excited about being there. He's excited about playing for Coach Pruitt and Coach Sherrer. He's known those guys for several years. Coach Sherrer recruited him when he was at Georgia, and Coach Pruitt recruited him for several years. He has a good feel about that part of it, being around those guys and the other staff at Tennessee.

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While continuing his academic work, Peterson also has continued to rehab the shoulder injury he suffered at the U.S. Army All-American Game in January.

Here is 247Sports's evaluation of Peterson as a prospect: