The importance of safety can never be stressed enough.
Tennessee picked up the 11th commitment for its 2023 signing class Saturday afternoon and the third from a safety, receiving a nonbinding pledge from John Slaughter. The 6-foot-1, 194-pounder from Southaven (Mississippi) High School near Memphis is the nation's No. 61 safety and No. 734 overall prospect on the 247Sports.com composite rankings.
Slaughter had scholarship offers from Florida State and Kentucky in addition to the closer-to-home trio of Memphis, Mississippi State and Ole Miss, and he ultimately selected the Volunteers over FSU and Ole Miss. He has visited Knoxville four times since last November's homecoming loss to Georgia, including this weekend.
"I feel like it was the place to be for me," Slaughter told 247Sports, "so I just pulled the trigger."
Vols coach Josh Heupel responded to Slaughter's decision with the customary "GBO" on Twitter.
The Vols moved up to 11th in the 247Sports team rankings with Slaughter's pledge. The other two safeties Tennessee has committed are four-star Sylvester Smith of Munford, Alabama, and three-star Jack Luttrell of Moultrie, Georgia.
Slaughter plans to graduate in December and enroll in January.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.