247Sports released its final player rankings and ratings update on Monday afternoon, giving one final shake-up to the cycle before the newswire fully flips to the 2027 recruiting class. Tennessee Football finished the cycle with a trio of five-star players who all landed in the Top 30 of 247’s player ratings in the new update.
The Vols’ highest-rated signee is quarterback Faizon Brandon, who lands as the No. 3 overall prospect in the 2026 class. Brandon spent time as both the No. 1 and No. 2 overall player in the class, but ended up finishing the rankings at the No. 3 spot. He was jumped by Vanderbilt quarterback signee Jared Curtis in the final update.
Regardless of rankings, Brandon is a top-notch prospect in the class and projects to be a game-changing player for Tennessee down the road. The 6-foot-4 quarterback from Greensboro, NC, is a two-time North Carolina State Champion and has dominated his path through high school football. Brandon has all the arm talent and athleticism to be a star player at the SEC level, and he’ll likely be in the running for the Vols’ starting job during spring ball and fall camp this offseason.
More From RTI: Tennessee QB Joey Aguilar Reportedly Suing NCAA In Knox County
Tennessee made one of the biggest splashes in the entire recruiting cycle back in August when the Vols flipped five-star wide receiver Tristen “TK” Keys away from LSU. Keys is the top wide receiver in the class and lands at No. 12 in 247’s updated rankings.
Keys is the top-ranked wide receiver in the class for a reason. The 6-foot-2 prospect from Hattiesburg, MS, is a catching machine with length and athleticism that can translate to the next level. Keys has an elite catch radius and a great first step to get down the field and away from defenders. It wouldn’t be a shock to see Keys start to break the barrier into Tennessee’s receiver rotation during his true freshman season if all goes well.
The final Tennessee signee on 247Sports’ recruiting rankings is five-star offensive tackle Gabriel Osenda. The Chattanooga prospect lands as the No. 27 overall player in the updated ratings, coming in as the fifth-ranked offensive tackle in the nation.
Osenda towered over his high school foes at 6-foot-7, 330 pounds. He projects to be an anchor of an offensive lineman as he develops with the Vols’ program in the near future and has all the tools to succeed in SEC play. 247Sports’ Andrew Ivins described Osenda with phrases such as weaponizing his length against opponents, forklifting assignments while establishing leverage, and clearing traffic with initial power surges while writing an evaluation on him from November. Those are the types of words that’ll have Vol fans fired up for his future in Knoxville.
247Sports’ updated team rankings have Tennessee as the fourth-best recruiting class in the country, behind only Southern Cal, Alabama, and Oregon. 247 has Tennessee with three five-star prospects, 10 four-star prospects, and 16 three-star prospects in the cycle.
Check out the Vols’ full class here.
