Nearly five years after he got a scholarship offer from Tennessee, Tommy Winton III is finally getting the chance to play for the hometown Vols. The former three-star athlete out of Knoxville Catholic High School, who played his first two seasons of college football at East Tennessee State, announced his commitment to Tennessee via social media on Monday. Winton is joining the Vols as a preferred walk-on, GoVols247 is told.
The 5-foot-10, 196-pound Winton, who entered the NCAA transfer portal last month, earned an offer from Tennessee’s previous coaching staff at a camp in June 2019 and went on to add several power-conference offers before winding up with the Football Championship Subdivision’s Bucs. His offer list included Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Mississippi State out of the SEC in addition to West Virginia, Syracuse, Virginia Tech and Duke. Winton took an official visit to West Virginia in the summer of 2021 before his senior season at Catholic.
He committed to ETSU just before National Signing Day in 2022.
“It’s home,” Winton told GoVols247. “I grew up in Neyland. On top of that, I couldn’t have came into a better offensive scheme.”
Winton played in four games in Johnson City as a freshman to preserve a redshirt before emerging as an eight-game starter and earning Southern Conference All-Freshman Team honors in his second season last fall. He caught 23 passes for 349 yards, leading ETSU in both categories and making at least one catch in nine of the 10 games he played, and added 10 carries for 23 yards in 10 games. Winton also returned four kickoffs for 99 yards and played some on special teams.
He averaged 15.2 yards per catch and had a catch of 20+ yards in five games. Winton caught three passes for a season-high 89 yards in a game against Western Carolina and also was productive against Austin Peay(three catches for 40 yards and a 19-yard run). He had a 37-yard catch as part of a three-catch, 70-yard game against Wofford and caught four passes against Chattanooga.
All of his kickoff-return production came in one game (Samford).
Winton’s snaps as a freshman came in games against Mars Hill, Samford, Wofford and Mississippi State.
Winton said the opportunity to play for the Vols materialized quickly and he’s looking forward to helping any way he can.
“We honestly haven’t gotten too into that,” he said of his opportunity with the offense. “I’ve been around, so I’ve made it clear I just want to come in and help out wherever I can, embody the ‘give my ALL to Tennessee’ motto.
“I’m excited to get back home and work. Really happened fast and last-second.”
Coming out of high school, Winton was rated a three-star prospect and ranked the No. 72 athlete and No. 29 player in Tennessee in the 2022 class by 247Sports.
Winton played wide receiver and defensive back at Catholic and earned All-State and All-Region honors in all four years there during a career which saw him rack up 3,154 receiving yards and 43 touchdowns for the Fighting Irish.
Winton’s younger brother, Brandon, is a three-star 2024 athlete who signed with South Florida in December and enrolled with the Bulls earlier this year after playing at Knoxville’s Webb School, IMG Academy in Florida and Alcoa High School in the Knoxville area during his prep career.
The older Winton has three years of eligibility remaining and will be a redshirt sophomore this fall.
