Joseph Young decided to extend his recruitment after getting a scholarship offer from Tennessee on National Signing Day, and it didn’t take him long to realize that his mind was set on the Vols.

He was even more convinced after visiting Tennessee in February and again in April.

It seemed to be only a matter of time before the three-star running back from Fairfield Central High School in Winnsboro, S.C., gave the Vols a late addition to their 2015 recruiting class, and he made his decision official Monday when he enrolled at Tennessee.

Young became the Vols’ 30th commitment for the 2015 class and joined five-star junior-college transfer Alvin Kamara and three-star athlete John Kelly in addressing Tennessee’s glaring need for additional depth at running back.

“It’s very exciting. I can’t wait to get on campus and do my thing,” Young said before arriving in Knoxville on Sunday.

“It was a big opportunity for me, and I had to take it. I’m looking forward to playing in front of 100,000-plus on Saturdays. I’m really looking forward to making a name for myself. Right now, my name’s not that big, but I’m going to go in there, work hard and do everything I can.”

The 6-foot, 192-pound Young was committed to Charlotte for nearly two months, and he said he was prepared to sign with the 49ers until he received an offer from Tennessee the morning of signing day.

Other teams, including Oklahoma State, also had reached out to Young leading up to National Signing Day. But he said he couldn’t pass up the chance to play in the SEC and perhaps compete for early playing time with the Vols.

“Tennessee is a growing program, and it’s starting to grow up now,” said Young, who was ranked by 247Sports as the nation’s No. 143 running back in the 2015 class. “With all the five-star recruits, those guys have got to come in and perform and whatnot. But with the team growing up and getting better overall, it’s starting to look like the ’90s.

“I like the mountains. I just like the atmosphere on campus and stuff. I think it’ll be cool.”

Young said Tennessee running backs coach Robert Gillespie made it clear to him that rising sophomore starter Jalen Hurd and Kamara, who enrolled in January, were the only scholarship running backs who would be ahead of him on the depth chart when he arrived on campus.

“To be honest with you, the situation is they only have Alvin and Jalen and a walk-on, (Jayson) Sparks. But with two or three guys coming in with me, I’ve just got to go in and compete and, at the end of the day, do my job,” Young said.

“From there, they’ll tell me what I have to do and what happens from there. But all I can do is just go in and work hard.”

He admitted he was sold on Tennessee even before he arrived on campus for the first time, but his first visit with the Vols in late February and his latest trip to Knoxville the weekend of April 25 for their spring game solidified his decision.

“It was very exciting,” Young said of his April visit. “I got to chill with some of the players and see how some of the guys bulked up a little bit once they came in, being in the weight room and on the field, and running and exercising and stuff. It was just a lot of fun.

“It was loud (at the spring game). It was loud for it to be, I’d say, about 30,000- or 40,000-something people in there. I can’t wait to see how it’s going to be with 102,000-plus.”

Young, who also was a high-school track standout, said he has done plenty of running over the past few months to prepare for summer workouts at Tennessee.

But he knows he has plenty of work to do now that he’s on campus.

“(Gillespie) said what he wants from me is to keep my speed up,” Young said. “He said he doesn’t want to change me. He just wants to enhance me —Â put more stuff on me weight-wise and stuff like that. He was just like, ‘I want you to run just like you’re in high school.’ That’s basically what he told me.

“At the end of the day, I’ve got to prove myself, so that’s what I’m trying to come in and do early —Â prove myself to everybody.”

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