In the span of 11 days at the end of August, Tennessee Football made waves in the 2026 recruiting landscape by flipping three high-profile SEC prospects in the cycle. The three players in that wave included four-star Kamari Blair from South Carolina, five-star wide receiver Tristen Keys from LSU, and four-star EDGE rusher Hezekiah Harris from Auburn.
While breaking down Harris’s commitment on the Rivals’ YouTube show The Simmons Scoop, recruiting expert Chad Simmons detailed a big reason why Tennessee was able to sway the Alabama native away from Auburn and his home state.
“I just think that communication, he liked how he was being pursued by Tennessee, the relationships, the program,” Simmons said on the show. “Even though he’s from Alabama, he’s always talked to me about feeling at home in Knoxville around the people, the staff. It was led by Coach Chop, Levorn Harbin, the EDGE coach there at Tennessee for Josh Heupel. But a lot of those coaches were involved in this recruitment and in the end, they convinced him to change his mind and go away from Auburn, where his brother plays, to Tennessee.”
It’s been a longstanding belief that Tennessee’s relationship-building efforts have helped it assemble a strong 2026 class, which currently ranks as a Top 10 group according to Rivals, 247Sports, and ESPN. That’s been something that’s been talked about up and down the recruiting trail in this cycle, and we’ve seen tangible evidence of it aside from Harris’s commitment.
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Before five-star wide receiver Tristen Keys committed to Tennessee, many reports suggested that the Vols were going to be key players in the race because of the relationship that he held with not only the Vols’ coaching staff, but also with high-level commits such as quarterback Faizon Brandon. It ended up working out for the Vols in this case.
Additionally, the relationship-building aspect was something that led four-star defensive lineman Dereon Albert, a native of Hattiesburg, MS, to join the Vols’ class during the summer. Albert told Rocky Top Insider’s Ryan Schumpert that Tennessee’s effort to build a relationship with his family is something that stuck out to him during the process.
“When I went to Tennessee, it just felt like home,” Albert said. “It was just greatness. Don’t get me wrong, North Carolina was fun. It was great. I had a great time. It was nice seeing the place, but Tennessee just felt like home to me. The people were great. The coaches were great. They showed initiative, they showed time. They talked to my sister, family.”
Josh Heupel will use the portal when he needs to, but Tennessee has been a program that wants to develop from within. The only way you can acquire that talent, in addition to having a rather large NIL pool to work with, is to build strong relationships.
That’s been a common belief for why Tennessee has been able to build a strong recruiting class so far, and each passing commitment seemingly confirms that more.
Check out the full clip from The Simmons Scoop on YouTube below.
