Tennessee football recruiting: Vols in top three for 4-star athlete Zion Puckett

Tennessee football recruiting made the cut for another elite 2019 player. The Volunteers are in the top three for four-star Georgia prospect Zion Puckett.

More potentially good news on the recruiting front hit the Tennessee football program on Monday afternoon. But as our first sentence emphasizes, it’s just potentially good news at this point. Still, it definitely matters.

Four-star athlete Zion Puckett, who comes out of Spalding High School in Griffin, Ga., listed the Vols in his top three with the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Auburn Tigers. He also said he’ll announce his commitment on Friday, Aug. 17. You can see the video of Puckett giving this information here on Rivals analyst Chad Simmons’s Twitter account.

At 6’0″ 195 pounds, Puckett plays free safety and wide receiver. According to MaxPreps, he had 36 receptions for 660 yards and five touchdowns in seven games at receiver last year. He also had six carries for 47 yards rushing and three kickoff returns for another 121 yards, averaging over 40 yards a return, which is amazing. One went for a touchdown.

He also had 33 solo tackles and 40 total tackles on defense through seven games along with an interception. Simply put, he is a very diverse athlete, and one the Tennessee football would be lucky to pick up.

Given how thin the Vols are going to be at safety in the future, that’s probably the most ideal position for him on Rocky Top. After all, they have two seniors and a junior as their main rotational guys there this year, and the commitments are thin.

However, Puckett is clearly so elite with the ball in open space that he may be hard to pass up on offense. And Tennessee football is still thin in the slot as well. So clearly Puckett could easily fill a need for the Vols either way. We’ll know in less than three weeks if he’s going to be able to do that heading into next season.