In certain micro instances, star ratings can be overblown and not extremely important. But in the macro, there’s an abundance of proof that stars matter and the percentage of blue-chip players on your roster correlates to the success of your team.
Entering the 2025 season, Tennessee is on the right side of the blue-chip ratio for the first time under Josh Heupel. But where do the Vols rank in 247sports team talent composite? The recruiting site released its 2025 rankings Tuesday, using the high school recruiting rankings of every player in the country to rank the nation’s most talented teams.
Tennessee football landed at No. 16 nationally and No. 9 in the SEC in the 2025 rankings. The Vols have four former five-star recruits on their roster, 43 former four-star recruits and 29 former three-star recruits.
The Vols top rated recruits on their roster come at the positions you largely went them at. Both of Tennessee’s starting offensive tackles, Lance Heard and David Sanders, are former five-star recruits along with sophomore edge rusher Jordan Ross and sophomore receiver Mike Matthews.
While Tennessee’s No. 16 overall ranking is a bit underwhelming, it can be a tad misleading. How so? Tennessee has just 77 players on its roster that were ranked as high school recruits. None of the 15 teams above Tennessee in the rankings had fewer. Ole Miss and Missouri are the only teams ranked in the top 25 that had fewer.
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Why does Tennessee have fewer ranked players? There’s s couple reasons. For one, Tennessee could have less scholarship players on its roster than others. Secondly, a handful of Tennessee’s scholarship players were not ranked coming out of high school.
That group includes tight end Miles Kitselman, defensive tackle Josh Schnell and running back Star Thomas— all who could factor this season. Since recruiting services didn’t rank those players coming out of high school, they don’t factor into the rankings.
When looking just at the average rating of the players on Tennessee’s roster, the Vols rank a few spots higher at No. 13 nationally and No. 7 in the SEC. Tennessee jumps SEC foes Auburn and Florida when considering that criteria.
Still, when comparing Tennessee to the top teams in the conference they have some work to do to close the talent gap. Alabama has 14 former five-stars on its roster this season. So does Texas. Georgia has 12. That’s where the major drop off occurs. Texas A&M and Oklahoma have five while LSU and South Carolina have four like Tennessee.
The Vols kickoff their 2025 season this Saturday in Atlanta against Syracuse. The Orange ranks No. 34 in team talent with two former five-stars and 12 former four-stars on their roster. Kickoff from Mercedes-Benz Stadium is at noon ET and ABC is broadcasting the game.
