The prestigious Elite 11 Finals started on Monday in Nashville, TN, and Tennessee’s four-star quarterback commit caught the eye of current high school coach and former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer.
Dilfer spent over a decade in the NFL after being selected No. 6 overall in the 1994 NFL Draft and helped the Baltimore Ravens win Super Bowl XXXV. Now, Dilfer is the head coach of Lipscomb Academy in middle Tennessee, and he has a large hand in the Elite 11 Finals.
Monday kicked off this year’s event, which is a little different than previous Elite 11 Finals due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Rain pushed back the afternoon workout session to the evening, but the group of quarterbacks at this year’s event got in the work eventually and worked on base concepts that will be utilized as seven-on-seven action gears up later this week.
According to Dilfer, No. 1 overall quarterback Caleb Williams was the “alpha dog” of the group, but Salter was one of the other quarterbacks that stood out to him.
“Way more organized as a passer than his tape showed,” Dilfer said to 247Sports. “He was really, really clean, and there is some juice in that body, wow! It wouldn’t surprise me if he can take one step and 360 dunk. He has that kind of juice in his body. Super coachable, they threw these inside seam shots, right, left, one high, benders, stay skinny and they cross. First rep may not have been perfect, and I watch the second rep and his correction rep was money time after time after time.”
Salter was one of 20 quarterbacks invited to his year’s Elite 11 Finals, and he becomes the third Vol QB commit in three years to attend the finals. In fact, Salter is the fourth Vol quarterback commit to make it to the Elite 11 Finals over the last six years (Harrison Bailey in 2019, Brian Maurer in 2018, Jarrett Guarantano in 2015).
The 6-foot-1, 185-pound dual-threat quarterback from Cedar Hill, Texas committed to the Vols on May 10th of this year and has continuously moved up recruiting rankings. He’s now the No. 62 overall prospect and No. 4 dual-threat quarterback in the 2021 class on 247Sports.
In his first season at Cedar Hill last year, Salter completed 60.8 percent of his 245 pass attempts for 2,550 yards, 28 touchdowns, and just six interceptions while also running for 616 yards and 10 scores on 100 carries. He was named the District 7-6A MVP after leading Cedar Hill to a 9-3 record.
If you want to keep up with Salter and the rest of the quarterbacks at the Elite 11 Finals, be sure to follow VR2 on Twitter, our recruiting partners here at RTI. VR2 is over in Nashville to cover the event live.
