4-star Tennessee signee jumps 75 spots in final Rivals recruiting rankings

It is not all about stars, but having more of them than someone else is always better. When it comes to the final 2026 Rivals300 rankings, Tennessee Volunteers fans must love seeing four-star edge rusher Carter Gooden skyrocketing up them. He moved up from No. 149 to No. 74 in the final rankings update. That has him improving some 75 spots from where he was being ranked previously!

Rivals shared out over on X their 10 biggest risers in their final rankings of the 2026 Rivals300.

According to the 247Sports Composite, Gooden is the No. 1 player from Massachusetts, the No. 17 edge rusher in his class, and the No. 125 overall prospect in the 2026 recruiting class. Gooden enrolled at Tennessee earlier this week on Jan. 26. He is part of a top-10 recruiting class nationally. Tennessee comes in at No. 10 in the country, as well as No. 7 overall in the final composite rankings.

Josh Heupel continues to put in the necessary work to help keep Tennessee in the thick of things.

Tennessee enrollee Carter Gooden gets a huge bump in his Rivals ranking

One of the key aspects Vol Nation has to like about the state of the program under Heupel is that Tennessee continues to hold its own in recruitment in seemingly every phase. This past season had its ups and downs, but the team honestly overachieved, given the unexpected loss of Nico Iamaleava in the final spring transfer portal window to UCLA. Tennessee should field a ranked team once again.

What is important to know is that Jim Knowles will be taking over the reins of this defense from Tim Banks. One of the issues plaguing Tennessee last year was the inability to get the defense off the field in Banks' scheme. Knowles had a challenging year at Penn State, but he was the best defensive coordinator in college football only two years ago at Ohio State. Look for Gooden to grow under him.

Overall, Tennessee still has some ground to make up to being in serious College Football Playoff conversations. That being said, outside of Georgia and Texas, how confident are you about another SEC team certainly making the field? Tennessee has been there before. This team is hungry. Look for Heupel and his staff to have a refined sense of focus heading into what is a critical year for the team.

With how frustrating the defense was a year ago, Tennessee can really go up from here this season.