Tennessee football passes Florida in the recruiting rankings after landing 4-star OT

Thursday turned out to be a pretty good day for Tennessee football, with head man Josh Heupel pulling off a recruiting win that felt like it came a bit out of nowhere. In-state 4-star offensive tackle Kamari Blair was committed to South Carolina, but that all changed.

He indeed flipped to Tennessee, giving the Vols another highly-touted offensive tackle for the 2026 class to go along with 5-star tackle Gabriel Osenda. How could the news get any better? Leave it to the team over at Rivals to make fans smile even more, with the Vols jumping Florida in the recruiting rankings thanks to the Blair addition:

Tennessee holds Rivals' No. 12 recruiting class in the country after landing Kamari Blair

As things stand, Tennessee's '26 haul is No. 12 in the country and Florida is right behind them at No. 13. It's always great when you can send a bit of a statement against a rival with a recruiting win, but it was a two-for-one special for the Vols here.

Flipping a commit from USC and passing Florida at the same darn time? That's exactly how things went down. Unfortunately on Friday night, though, all signs are pointing to Shane Beamer and the South Carolina coaching staff getting a bit of revenge on UT.

That's because 5-star prospect Darius Gray, the nation's No. 1 ranked interior offensive lineman, is set to announce his commitment and the Gamecocks are the heavy favorites - multiple predictions have come in for the touted OT to pick South Carolina.

While that's going to be a bit of a bummer, it doesn't take away from the fact that Tennessee holds one of the top classes in the country in the SEC and Heupel isn't done working his magic just yet. After flipping Blair from a conference rival, might he do the same with Tristen Keys and LSU? Stay tuned to see if that happens or not, but making Blair change his mind sure was a solid win for the Vols.