Tennessee Vols could benefit from some major recruiting drama that involves the Oregon Ducks
One of the Tennessee Vols' highest-rated 2026 recruiting targets, five-star edge rusher Richard Wesley, committed to the Oregon Ducks on Saturday. Wesley, 6-foot-5/250 lbs from Chatsworth, CA, is rated in 247Sports' composite rankings as the No. 3 edge rusher in the nation and the No. 5 player in the state of California. He's also rated […]
One of the Tennessee Vols' highest-rated 2026 recruiting targets, five-star edge rusher Richard Wesley, committed to the Oregon Ducks on Saturday.
Wesley, 6-foot-5/250 lbs from Chatsworth, CA, is rated in 247Sports' composite rankings as the No. 3 edge rusher in the nation and the No. 5 player in the state of California. He's also rated as the No. 20 overall player in the 2026 recruiting class.
The talented five-star recruit took an unofficial visit to Tennessee last month during spring practice.
Wesley's commitment to Oregon was a surprise to a lot of folks — including his dad.
“We don’t have anything set in stone with Oregon as far as the full package,” said his father, Jonathan Wesley, to Rivals.com. “As far as we’re concerned, we like Oregon a lot. But there is still some fine-tuning that we need to do.”
“It was kind of like a shock,” added Jonathan Wesley. “We had a plan set in stone but I guess the over-excitement…This whole process is a lot on a kid, it’s a lot on us as adults. Ultimately, when I talked to him he didn’t tell me to shut the recruiting down and he’s still very much open and interested in other places….This definitely isn’t a final decision because there’s a lot to be finalized.”
Rivals.com national recruiting director Adam Gorney noted that Wesley recently mentioned Tennessee as a program that could receive an official visit this spring/summer.
This recruiting battle, based on the comments from Wesley's father, clearly isn't over. And Tennessee, considering their recent success with edge rushers (former Vol edge rusher James Pearce was a first-round pick in last month's NFL draft), should certainly be considered a threat to swipe the five-star recruit from the Ducks.
We'll see how this battle plays out this summer. It sounds like it could be interesting, and it wouldn't be a shock if the Volunteers somehow emerge as the winner of this battle.
