No. 3 Safety Terrion Arnold Talks SEC Programs After Senior Season Debut
LAKELAND, Fla. -- The high school football season kicked off in Florida on Friday night. SI All-American was on hand to see Tallahassee (Fla.) St. John Paul II travel to Lakeland (Fla.) Christian.
The Panthers would fall to the home team by a wide margin, but its top prospect -- Terrion Arnold -- is focused on the immediate future.
"It felt good, we've been preparing for this for the two weeks we were able to," he told SI All-American. "It was a tough loss, but my teammates showed they've got no quit in them so I look forward to competing in practice.
"Guys like me, Makari Vickers, a 10th-grader, Semaj James, a rising-senior and my little bother Leon (Washington, Jr.) and a couple more are pretty tight. We work hard every day and we make each other better every day."
Despite making an impact on offense at wide receiver, defensively at safety as well as on special teams as a kick returner, the SI99 member and No. 3 safety projection wasn't satisfied with his own performance (video above).
"I don't think I played well at all honestly," Arnold said. "The effort level was there but as far as being focused and keeping the intensity level high and living up to my potential, I don't think I did that tonight."
Beyond the 2020 season, the senior's recruitment is still heating up. He's cut his list to 11 programs at the end of August.
"It's pretty further down but I wanted to keep my options open with COVID going on," he said. "Also to keep coaches' eyes on my teammates. They could be coming to watch me and one of my teammates go off."
Arnold says programs like "Georgia, Alabama, Florida, LSU, Tennessee, A&M, schools like that" are recruiting him the hardest at this time.
He spent a weekend in Athens along with many top prospects in August.
"Korey (Foreman), LC (Lovosea Carroll), Xavian (Sorey), Maason (Smith), Brock (Vandagriff), all of those guys, when we linked together it was just chemistry off the rip," he said. "Coach (Charlton) Warren and Coach (Kirby) Smart have been recruiting me extremely heavy and plan to build the defense around me, so I've been talking to them a lot and they're probably one of the schools recruiting me the heaviest."
Alabama is coveting the 6-foot, 180-pounder as a versatile defensive back, led by their head coach.
"Nick Saban is following me on a regular basis, it doesn't get no bigger than that," Arnold said. "When I spoke with Nick he said right away I would come in at corner and then go to safety when they go to different schemes and certain things. He's putting the picture in my head of being a leader of the defense.
"He says he hasn't had a prototype like me for a long time so I look forward to living up to expectations if I go there."
Florida was met with a smile after Friday's game and one of Florida's top uncommitted prospects made it a point not to count out programs like Tennessee in the chase for his commitment.
"All the DBs going there, Coach (Ron) English actually coached my coach (Travis Norton) and he's probably been recruiting me the hardest as far as one guy, it's probably him," he said of the Gators. "With Tennessee, it's Coach (Derrick) Ansley, he's developed a lot of guys. Coach (Jeremy) Pruitt knows what he's doing. It's an underrated school but I feel like with their fan base and even with the Name, Image and Likeness thing coming out, I can help them come up."
Arnold says he has no timeline for a verbal commitment, going as far as not ruling out a January or February call ahead of the traditional National Signing Day.
"I'm a believer in God," he said. "I trust my faith and I feel like when that time comes, he'll just put it in my heart and I'll know where I need to go.
"I just wanna see the schools that have the best level of competition on the offensive end and the defensive end because you get better in practice. All the great ones, they were dogs in practice and became great in practice. So I really want to go to a school where I can compete. Any school that's telling me I can go and start right away or play right away, I don't need that. I want to go there and fight for mine."
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