Two incoming Tennessee stars get a jolt of added motivation as they begin their college careers in Knoxville

Tennessee’s two top-rated signees got a major snub this week.

Craig Smith — College Football & NFL Trending News Writer
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The Tennessee Vols had a strong signing day in December, adding a number of notable signees who could become very important to the program sooner rather than later.

That includes in particular quarterback Faizon Brandon and wide receiver Tristen Keys. Both were among the most highly sought after players in the country regardless of position. Both should compete for an immediate role on the team, with Brandon likely battling George MacIntyre this offseason and fall camp for the starting quarterback job.

However, while Brandon and Keys were five stars and ranked as top ten players nationally in the majority of outlets, one didn’t happen to see things that way.

On3 Sports/Rivals put out their final list of five-star players/top 32 rankings for the 2026 class, and neither Brandon nor Keys were anywhere to be found.

Tennessee signees Faizon Brandon and Tristen Keys left off On3 Sports/Rivals final five-star rankings for 2026

Tennessee and head-scratching rankings aren’t a new phenomenon, as MacIntyre’s dubious rankings proved.

However, this ranking in particular made little sense in comparison to the placement of Brandon and Keys in the other notable outlets, who all have them as five-star recruits. 247 Sports has Brandon as the No. 2 quarterback and player nationally; they have Keys as the top wide receiver and No. 10 player in the nation. ESPN has Brandon and Keys as the No. 9 and 10 players nationally, respectively.

Some might say, ‘who cares?’ when it comes to rankings at this point. Well, some players do, at least some of them. They keep news clippings. They hear about what other teams and players say about them, what talking heads say. They find way to turn disrespect into motivation to go out there and prove people wrong.

So, Tennessee fans ought to be happy with these rankings, because they just handed two of Tennessee’s brightest stars a little bit of bulletin board material and added personal fuel as their time as Vols gets underway.

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