With just a couple of weeks until the start of fall training camps across the nation, the 2026 college football season is getting closer and closer. It’s been a long offseason, but the light is right around the corner.
Like every offseason, the big storylines in the spring and summer months have been in the recruiting world as teams continue to build their rosters for the future.
Tennessee Football’s 2027 recruiting class currently has 16 commitments in mid July. The Vols have a handful of four-star pledges and a bunch of three-star commitments, but are still looking for their first five-star prospect in the class. Perhaps that comes later this month, but we’ll jump back to that topic shortly.
Rivals has Tennessee’s 2027 class ranked No. 35 in the nation with six four-star commits and 10 three-star commits. It’s the 14th highest ranking in the SEC, only ahead of Arkansas and Mississippi State.
247Sports, meanwhile, has Tennessee at No. 45 in the nation with four four-star commits and 11 three-star commits. Tennessee is the second-lowest team from the SEC in these rankings, only leading Mississippi State by three spots.
Lastly is ESPN, who does not have team rankings for every program like the other two services. ESPN does have star rankings, though, and tags UT with five four-star commits and eight three-star commits.
Some of the reason for the big discrepancy between the star ranking totals is that Tennessee has two special teams commits with kicker Ford Fehling and long snapper Sam McKeown. Rivals and 247 give both players a three-star ranking, while ESPN have both unranked. The same is true for JUCO defensive line commit Christian Mays, with Rivals tagging him as a four-star JUCO product and the other two services leaving him unranked.
More From RTI: CBS Sports Lists Josh Heupel’s Hot Seat Rating Heading Into 2026
On all three services, Tennessee’s 2027 class is headlined by four main commits: WR Kesean Bowman (TN), TE Malik Howard (TN), LB Kenneth Simon II (TN), and OT Princeton Uwaifo (TN).
What could drastically change these rankings in the next week is landing a commitment from elite five-star running back David Gabriel Georges. The uncommitted prospect is deciding between Tennessee, Ohio State, and Ole Miss, and will announce his commitment on July 22. He lands as a Top 25 overall player in all three services, and comes in as the No. 9 overall prospect in Rivals’ Industry Rankings.
Tennessee has put in a lot of stock into Gabriel Georges’ recruitment, but they’re in an all-out battle with the Buckeyes for the final decision. A commitment this month from DGG would go a long way into rounding out Tennessee’s class.
It’s not the staggering overall recruiting numbers that Tennessee fans have been used to seeing over the last few years, especially coming off a Top 10 class last cycle. But there’s still time for the Vols to turn up the gas for some important recruitments, such as in-state running back Asa Barnes. There’s also the transfer portal, which Tennessee used more than it ever had in the past this offseason.
Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for more Tennessee Football recruiting coverage.
