Veteran Wideout Payton 'Excited' to Finally Play for Home-State Vols
It took a long time and several stops for elsewhere, but JaVonta Payton finally made it to Tennessee. Payton was recruited by three different Tennessee staff's with Josh Heupel's staff finally being the group to get the Nashville native to Rocky Top.
They were just 100 from the start," Payton's father told Sports Illustrated at the time of his decision in May. "They came in and basically laid out their plan on the table. How they want to use Javonta and how they saw the things in Javonta's skillset that we always saw. They were just so personable. It was like we knew them for years when we sat down and talked to them."
Now, for the first time since coming to Tennessee, Payton had a chance to talk with the media on Thursday, and he is excited to finally rep his home-state team.
"Man, it is exciting," Payton told local reporters on Thursday afternoon. "When I got here everyone told me, you should have (already) been here. Being back in my home state and knowing a lot of players, you know, I knew a lot of players before I got here, so it feels much more comfortable being around a lot of players that I know. One of the guys from my hometown, Theo Jackson, he took me in when I first got here. He helped me find a place to live and stuff, but there were a lot of guys that took me in like a little brother, even though I am pretty much the oldest. They took me in pretty well and I am pretty excited."
This is the final opportunity for Payton to make an impact at the college level, and he is approaching this as a business trip, while also sharing his experiences with the younger players in the wide receiver room.
"I had a lot of one-on-one talks with Coach (Kelsey) Pope and Coach (Kodi) Burns, they tell me all the time that I have the most experience of the guys out there and just helping them out and telling them how it is going through camp," Payton added.
