It’s not every day you see an eighth grader hold 12 offers to play college football. It also isn’t every day an eighth-grader leads his high school to a 7A state championship in the state of Alabama.
Class of 2027 quarterback Trent Seaborn checks both of those boxes.
“Starting at eighth-grade and playing on varsity, these guys are sophomores, juniors, seniors, that’ll really help me when I get to college,” Seaborn told Off The Hook Sports. “Because those guys will obviously be a lot older. It prepares me for college.”
The run saw him throw for 177 yards and 15 touchdowns on 105-of-149 passing. In the state championship game, Seaborn threw for five touchdowns and 207 yards.
Tennessee hosted Seaborn for a visit on Saturday. The young signal-caller got to meet Joe Milton and Nico Iamaleava. He also got to sit in on meetings and get a taste of what it would be like to be the quarterback in the Vols’ offense.
“I was really impressed by Coach Halzle and his offensive terminology,” Seaborn said. “They’re super fast-paced and uptempo. The complexity of the offense really blew me away. I was really impressed by the quarterbacks and their ability to pick up on all the terminology and stuff they had to do through reads and progressions.”
Joey Halzle made a great impression on Seaborn with how he focuses on both the quarterback’s mental reads, but also their physical mechanics.
“He’s not just a play-caller, he works with the quarterbacks on their techniques and mastering their skills,” Seaborn said. “He works on not just their reads but their mechanics and throwing the ball. I was super impressed by that.”
Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel’s offense is very friendly to quarterbacks and wide receivers. That is not lost on Seaborn, who loves the idea of an uptempo offense and plays in one at his high school, Thompson (Ala.) in Alabaster.
“That is really helpful,” Seaborn said. “When they were demonstrating that at practice today and the defense couldn’t even get set before they were ready to snap the ball. I think that’s a really good aspect.”
After sitting through quarterbacks’ meetings and getting a taste of what it is like to play quarterback for Tennessee, Seaborn could see himself fitting in that offense.
“I really like the way that they run stuff and it’s pretty similar to Thompsons,” Seaborn said.
Seaborn is planning to take a look at at least Wisconsin in the offseason, but his other plans are not finalized yet. Tennessee made a great first impression on the young prospect, who wants to take a trip back to Knoxville soon.
“It’s really early in the process, but I really liked how it went today and I think it’s a good prospect,” Seaborn said.
