With Week 1 of the 2025 college football season just around the corner, 247Sports released its 2025 College Football Team Talent Composite Rankings on Tuesday morning. Fans are fairly familiar with the idea of star ratings and total talent when it comes to a recruiting class, which is how teams classes are ranked each cycle. Tennessee’s 2026 class, for instance, is ranked 11th in the nation with two five-stars, 11 four-stars, and 10 three-stars.
The same idea can be used for current team rosters, as well. It’s not the end-all, be-all, as players can either overproduce or underproduce what their high school rankings were, but it is a good measurement of which teams, on average, have the most talent on their rosters heading into the season.
Tennessee’s 2025 roster, comprised of 77 scholarship players, is ranked 16th in the nation and ninth in the SEC with four five-star players, 43 four-star players, and 29 three-star players. The Vols sit one spot below Miami at No. 15 and one spot above Southern Cal at No. 17. Tennessee is ranked ninth in the conference behind No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Georgia, No. 4 Texas, No. 6 LSU, No. 8 Texas A&M, No. 12 Auburn, No. 13 Florida, and No. 14 Oklahoma.
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The first noticeable thing when looking at Tennessee’s talent composite roster is just how many young players are on this list. When looking at the Vols’ four five-stars, for instance, only one has played meaningful snaps, and he was banged up during his first year on Rocky Top after transferring in from LSU. That would be left tackle Lance Heard. The other five-stars on the roster are still looking to make a routine impact on the field, including OT David Sanders Jr., WR Mike Matthews, and EDGE rusher Jordan Ross.
While Tennessee might not have as much talent as the other Top 15 teams, a lot of it is young talent who are either waiting their turn to play or will step into a better role this season, starting with the Syracuse game on Saturday. Other notable highly-rated players who are waiting for their turn include DL Isaiah Campbell, TE DaSaahn Brame, DL Mariyon Dye, WR Travis Smith Jr., QB George MacIntyre, LB Jaedon Harmon, DL Ethan Utley, and plenty more. All that to say, Tennessee’s got a ton of young talent that’s developing into impact players for the team, whether that be this year or in the near future.
The second noticeable aspect of the list is that head coach Josh Heupel and his staff have consistently done more with less when it comes to the rankings. Again, high school rankings do become somewhat meaningless based on how the players develop once they arrive on campus, but Heupel has made a knack of finding diamonds in the rough and getting the most out of his players.
Tennessee’s recruiting has also been increasing under Heupel’s watch. In 2021 and 2022, Tennessee had the No. 22 and No. 23 ranked classes in the nation, respectively. Then, in 2023, it jumped all the way up to No. 11 in the nation. It took a slight step back to No. 14 in 2024, but jumped back up to No. 11 in 2025. The Vols are sitting at No. 11 with the 2026 class winding down, but there’s still room to grow into a Top 10 class with a few key players left on the recruiting trail to still win over, such as five-star wide receiver Tristen Keys. Tennessee’s team talent ranking is sure to keep improving in the coming years.
For a full look at 247Sports’ 2025 College Football Team Talent Composite Rankings, click here.
