Where Tennessee Football’s 2027 Class Ranks After Decommitment of Four-Star Defensive Lineman

Tennessee football suffered a significant blow to its 2027 recruiting class on Wednesday. Four-star defensive lineman Kadin Fife announced that he has decommitted from the program and is looking at other options. He’s coming off a string of official visits in which he saw the Vols, Georgia and Ole Miss.

With the departure of Fife, Tennessee drops significantly in class rankings for the cycle. The Vols are now outside the top 50 on 247 and 35 on Rivals.

Here’s where Tennessee stands as a team and as individual commits so far.

Team Ranking

• 247
  • Nationally: 52
  • SEC: 14
    • Behind Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Texas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State
• Rivals
  • Nationally: 35
  • SEC: 12
    • Behind Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Florida, Ole Miss, Texas, Georgia, Auburn, LSU, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi State

More From RTI: Tennessee Legacy Commit Kenneth Simon II Posts Hype Video From His Official Visit in Knoxville

Player Rankings

In order of most recent to commit to first to commit

ATH – DaYon Cooper

• 247
  • 3-star
  • No. 53 ATH
  • No. 32 TN
• Rivals
  • 3-star
  • No. 11 ATH
  • No. 22 TN

OL – Q’Mari Hudson

• 247
  • 3-star
  • No. 46 OT
  • No. 10 VA
• Rivals
  • 4-star
  • No. 281 nationally
  • No. 22 OT
  • No. 7 VA

LB – Kenneth Simon II

• 247
  • 4-star
  • No. 144 nationally
  • No. 9 LB
  • No. 6 TN
• Rivals
  • 4-star
  • No. 189 nationally
  • No. 17 LB
  • No. 9 TN

K – Ford Fehling

• 247
  • N/a
• Rivals
  • N/a

DB – Dylan Haley

• 247
  • 3-star
  • No. 55 ATH
  • No. 84 GA
• Rivals
  • 3-star
  • No. 45 CB
  • No. 37 GA

DL – Christian Mays (JUCO)

• 247:
  • N/a
• Rivals:
  • N/a

TE – Malik Howard

• 247
  • 4-star
  • No. 183 nationally
  • No. 8 TE
  • No. 8 TN
• Rivals
  • 3-star
  • No. 27 TE
  • No. 20 TN

LS – Sam McKeown

• 247
  • Unranked
• Rivals
  • 3-star
  • No. 1 LS
  • No. 21 Oklahoma

DB – Brandon ‘Slim’ Leavell

• 247
  • 3-star
  • No. 47 S
  • No. 28 TN
• Rivals
  • 3-star
  • No. 44 CB
  • No. 15 TN