3-star safety John Slaughter commits to Tennessee

Tennessee grabbed their third defensive back so far of the 2023 recruiting class. 3-star safety John Slaughter committed to the Volunteers on Saturday afternoon.

Hailing from Southaven, Mississippi, Slaughter is ranked as the 700th overall player according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings. He is the 61st ranked safety.

Tennessee officially offered Slaughter quite a long time ago—June 2021 to be exact. Slaughter made his way to Knoxville multiple times following the offer, and was recently on campus in late May for a major recruiting weekend. He officially visited on June 24th, and soon after decided to shut down his recruitment.

Slaughter is a very well rounded football player. His football team likes to use him in a variety of ways, and Slaughter causes a lot of havoc on the field.

Slaughter can hold his own when playing near the line of scrimmage, but his best plays come from the free safety role. Even if it’s not Slaughter going for the interception, he’s got enough clips of himself jarring a ball loose or otherwise throwing off a receiver. Slaughter also has an encouraging amount of offensive highlights that show ball skills and raw athleticism.

How exactly this will translate to the next level is not totally clear. Slaughter is not exactly playing great competition, and there’s more than a few of his highlights that are simply the results of playing high school ball. It’s also hard to pinpoint one thing that gives Slaughter a high ceiling. Right now, it’s mainly his versatility that brings him success. Let’s hope the versatility is maintained to the next level.

Tennessee’s 2023 recruiting class now boasts 11 commits and an 11th overall class ranking on 247Sports.

As a fun side note, Tennessee also has junior cornerback Doneiko Slaughter on the roster—who also plays cornerback/safety. Should they ever be on the field together, can we call that defensive secondary “The Slaughterhouse”?