COMMIT ALERT: Versatile four-star defensive back Tre Poteat chooses Vols
As Tennessee football continues to add to its recruiting class coming out of summer official visits, it has landed another blue-chip recruit in four-star cornerback Tre Poteat.
The Verona Area (Wis.) standout now becomes the 15th commit in the Vols' 2025 recruiting class.
He breaks down what stood out about Tennessee with VolReport.
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Poteat is coming off a weekend where he was in town for an official visit.
This allowed him to get more comfortable with the fit on and off the field. When it comes to off-the-field fits, he found a home in Knoxville.
"The visit was good,” Poteat said. “I really just got to see a clearer picture of Knoxville. The city is beautiful, and the people are so nice. They have all the things around to be successful, and the players have all nice things to say about it."
As he continued talking with some of the players and getting a true sense of what life as a potential Tennessee football player would be like, he noticed one thing that stood out.
The realness of the people inside the football program.
“The thing that stood out about Tennessee was the overall honesty from all the players and coaches,” Poteat said. “They keep everything real over there.”
That feeling of genuine connection is something head coach Josh Heupel has taken pride in as he has built the football program back up.
As the Vols have been on the rise as of late, the four-star has been watching and taking everything in. When he thinks of the future at Tennessee under Heupel, he sees a program just starting to scratch its potential.
"Coach Heupel is the best,” Poteat said. “I see what he’s been able to do for this program the past few years, and with limited resources, he’s been able to have success, so now that everything’s coming together, I see really great things for this program."
Poteat is a versatile playmaker for his high school, and that should translate to Tennessee, where he could line up at several spots in the secondary.
With that being said, as he has worked through the recruiting process, one coach he has connected with is cornerback coach Willie Martinez.
"Coach Nez and my relationship has been amazing," Poteat said. "He’s looking for dogs, and I see that inside of me; every day I wake up, I live by that dog mentality."
The new commit is not new to the game of football by any stretch of the imagination.
His father, Hank Poteat, played a decade in the NFL and is now the cornerback coach at Iowa State. Being a coach's son, Tre Poteat actively searched for a place with good coaching that could use his strengths on the defensive side of the ball at the next level. After working through his recruitment, he believes he found a fit with what Tennessee wants to do on the defense.
"I see myself fitting well in their schemes,” Tre Poteat said. “I feel like their defense highlights a lot of my dominant traits, so putting those together would be amazing."
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