Tennessee is trending in the right direction for one of their top tight end targets already. On Monday afternoon, another of the Vols’ TE targets included Tennessee in his list of finalists.
Trinity Bell, a big-bodied athlete who plays for Albertville High School in Albertville, Alabama, tweeted out a graphic showing his five finalists in his recruitment on Monday. Tennessee made the cut along with Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, and UCF.
? #final5 pic.twitter.com/Fc5qOh4x9V
— Trinity ?️ (@OfficialTrinnn) May 11, 2020
According to the 247Sports Composite rankings, Bell is the No. 486 overall prospect, No. 40 athlete, and No. 19 recruit in the state of Alabama in the 2021 cycle. Along with the offers from his top five teams, Bell also holds offers from Nebraska, Indiana, Purdue, Illinois, and others.
At 6-foot-7, 250 pounds, Bell is a large-bodied athlete who didn’t play football for his first two years of high school. After playing football a lot growing up, he elected to focus on basketball his first couple years of high school, and he excelled there. As a sophomore, he averaged 15.1 points and 9.8 rebounds while totaling 13 double-doubles. He was voted to the Class 6A Third Team All-State team.
But heading into this junior year of high school, he decided to give football a try again. UT was the first school to offer him, giving him an offer back in February of 2019. Illinois followed in August, and Nebraska, Auburn, Indiana, and Purdue all gave him offers in September. Kentucky and UCF are the most recent schools to offer him, doing so in March and April of this year.
Bell has been a frequent visitor to Tennessee’s campus, attending the Vols’ home match-up with BYU in Week 2 of the 2019 season and coming back for a Junior Day event on February 1st of this year. He’s also taken multiple visits to Auburn.
Bell’s size and strength make him an ideal weapon on offense, and he’s a match-up nightmare for anyone in high school. Even in college, he’ll be tough to guard and defend. On defense, he has some solid skills and a good foundation to build upon, but it looks like he’s more polished and has a bit of a higher ceiling on offense.
On offense, Bell caught 26 passes for 415 yards and six touchdowns as a junior. Defensively, he totaled 28 tackles, two sacks, six tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, and a defensive touchdown. He also has a reported 6-foot-9 wingspan and a 31-inch vertical leap.
Three-star tight end Miles Campbell is trending heavily towards the Vols ahead of his announcement next week, and Bell has been considered a Tennessee lean for a while as well. The Vols have a need for at least one tight end in their 2021 class, and it’s believed they’ll take two if the numbers work out that way.
Tennessee currently has 21 commitments in their 2021 class, a class that ranks No. 2 in the country and No. 1 in the SEC at the moment.
