Tennessee football has been hot in recruiting the past couple of seasons. The imminent success under Josh Heupel has fueled some of the top players in the country to commit to Tennessee. We're seeing some of those players on Shield-Watkins Field already, and they're making an immediate impact.
Heupel and the coaching staff have already begun working on the 2026 recruiting class, which already features Five-star quarterback Faizon Brandon, four-star tight end Carson Sneed, and offensive lineman Brandon Anderson before we reach the early signing period for the 2025 class.
Another potential impact player for the Vols is 2026 five-star running back Savion Hiter. According to On3 Sports' rankings, he's the No. 1 running back in the country and the No. 1 player in Virginia.
Hiter was supposed to join the dozens of recruits to attend the Alabama game, but that didn't work out, so he skipped his trip to Penn State for a trip to Rocky Top instead.
5-star RB Savion Hiter will take a visit to Tennessee this weekend
According to On3's Recruiting Prediction Machine, Michigan is shown as the leader in the clubhouse for Hiter, followed by Virginia, Ohio State, and Georgia. Tennessee is tied with James Madison, Penn State, and South Carolina with a 5.8% chance to land Hiter, so I expect these odds to change quite a bit as we get into the winter months.
Tennessee has had a lot of great running backs in the Heupel offense. Jaylen Wright, Jabari Small, and Dylan Sampson are some of the most recent impact players at the position, and DeSean Bishop has already shown a lot of potential in the backfield, with 266 yards on 38 carries so far this season.
Tennessee and Kentucky are scheduled to kick off on SEC Network at 7:45 PM ET Saturday night. The Vols are coming off a bye week and will look to build some quick momentum as they begin their final stretch of SEC play.