David Sanders Jr. is no longer the biggest Tennessee football recruiting win in the Josh Heupel era. Five-star wide receiver Tristen Keys has taken that top spot after the Vols flipped the 2026 Mississippi prospect from the LSU Tigers Thursday, according to ON3 and Rivals, after months of rumors they would do just that.
It’s one thing to land five-star quarterbacks and receivers when you’re Heupel after the 2022 season when Hendon Hooker and Jalin Hyatt went off. Heck, it wasn’t that much difficult to land them after 2023, as the issues could be attributed to Joe Milton III not being a fit for the offense.
After last year, though, when Tennessee football shifted more to a rushing attack, the receivers underperformed and Nico Iamaleava transferred in the offseason, there was legit reason for players in the passing game to be concerned. It showed.
Faizon Brandon was the last player in the passing game of that caliber to commit to the Vols, and he did it in August of last year, before the season kicked off. The question became whether or not Heupel’s offense was still attractive to such players. Well, Keys proved just that.
This is what makes him such a recruiting win. The Vols were able to land him after the storylines surrouding their passing offense. Adding to that is the fact that they flipped him from the LSU Tigers who had a Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback just two seasons ago.
Only Sanders compares. The reason Sanders was a big recruiting win was because there was no evidence Heupel could land such players in the trenches, and the five-star offensive lineman became the highest-rated commit for the Vols across the board since Eric Berry.
Well, Keys is as high as Sanders on 247Sports Composite and higher at his position. As a result, he’s also the biggest recruiting get for Heupel on paper too. Simply put, his position, the nature of flipping him and his ratings make him the biggest recruiting win for Tennessee football under Heupel.
Standing at 6’2″ and weighing 180 pounds, the product of Hattiesburg High School in Forrest County, Miss., already has the body to play at the college level, and that will likely only improve in the next year. He will be another elite wideout, and UT now has the highest-rated quarterback (Brandon) and wide receiver for 2026.
With this pickup, Tennessee football now has three five-stars, 11 four-stars and 24 overall commits for 2026 and the No. 8 ranked recruiting class. Brandon and Keys are two of UT’s 10 highest-rated commitments since 2000, and they are in the same class. Simply put, Heupel hit a grand slam.
The post Tennessee football flipping five-star WR Tristen Keys is Josh Heupel’s new BIGGEST recruiting win with Vols first appeared on Off The Hook Sports with Dave Hooker.
