Tennessee football makes cut for 2022 Indiana QB Tayven Jackson

If there is one area Tennessee football should be able to land elite quarterbacks, it’s the Indianapolis area. The Vols’ most famous quarterback in history and arguably most beloved player in history is also the most famous and most beloved player in Colts history, Peyton Manning.

Well, UT made the cut for a key 2022 quarterback from that area on Friday. Tayven Jackson, who comes out of Center Grove High School in Greenwood, Ind., which is a suburb south of Indy, announced that the Vols were in his top nine.

Joining Tennessee football on Jackson’s list included the Texas A&M Aggies, Ole Miss Rebels,  Auburn Tigers, Arkansas Razorbacks, Florida State Seminoles, UCLA Bruins, Washington State Cougars and Arizona State Sun Devils. He announced the schools on Twitter.

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Standing at 6’5″ and weighing between 185 and 195 pounds, Jackson is a bit hard to gauge right now. He is currently a four-star on Rivals and listed as a dual-threat quarterback. However, he is a three-star on 247Sports and 247Sports Composite and listed as a pro-style quarterback there.

Either way, though, the guy clearly appears to have potential, and Josh Heupel is still looking for that first commitment in his 2022 recruiting class. He is also looking for his first quarterback to secure a pickup from.

Could Jackson be that guy? Although he comes from Indy, where the Manning name is royalty as much as it is on Rocky Top, he would have been very young, around seven years old, when Manning played his last game for that franchise. As a result, it’s hard to see just how much of an impact Manning would have on his potential decision to head to UT.

The good news for the Vols is that there are no favorites on the Rivals Fan Cast or 247Sports Crystal Ball to land him, and the favorite by a plurality on the Rivals Fan Future Cast, the Kansas State Wildcats, did not make the cut for him. As a result, Tennessee football is very much in play, and the Vols have a unique proximity to the Indy area beyond other schools.