Tennessee opens its 2026 season this week. Recruit Intel tracks 395 high schools across the state, and what follows is the whole region in one place: the best player at every position, the recruits holding real offers with no star rating anywhere, and the programs actually producing Division 1 talent. Every number is stated with the sample it rests on.
Quarterback
Andre Adams at Antioch, class of 2027, is a four-star committed to Colorado with 28 verified offers. Graham Simpson at Westview (Martin) is the uncommitted four-star to watch, 26 offers and a production percentile in the 94th among quarterbacks in our database. Gavin Hampton at Ravenwood (Brentwood) is committed to Mississippi State with 23 offers and sits at the 91st percentile.
Two uncommitted 2028 quarterbacks at that offer volume in one state is unusual. Simpson is the one whose production matches his recruitment.
Running back
David Gabriel Georges at Baylor School (Chattanooga) is a five-star Tennessee commit with 34 verified offers, the highest-rated player in this preview. Khamoni Williams at Southwind (Memphis) is an Auburn commit on 27. Asa Barnes at Westview is a second Tennessee commit, holding 21.
Wide receiver
Kesean Bowman at Brentwood Academy leads the position with 42 verified offers, a four-star committed to Tennessee. Lawrence Britt at Lausanne Collegiate School (Memphis) is a four-star Missouri commit on 35.
Then there is Maddox Porter at Battle Ground Academy (Franklin), class of 2029, holding 36 verified offers with zero stars on any service and a production percentile in the 99th among receivers we track. He is not overlooked, he is the reigning MaxPreps National Freshman of the Year and Georgia and Oregon are involved. He is simply too young to have been rated yet, which is a different thing and worth saying plainly.
Tight end
Colton Johnson at Upperman (Baxter) holds 55 verified offers, the second-most of any player in this article, and is committed to Ole Miss with a production percentile in the 92nd. Judah Lancaster at Brentwood Academy holds 45 and is still uncommitted. Bennett Conyers, a 2028 at Montgomery Bell Academy (Nashville), already carries 39.
Tennessee is producing tight ends at a rate no other region in this series has shown. Three players at 39 offers or more in one position group is the deepest single group we have published.
Offensive line
Kyle Nabrotzky at Brentwood holds 33 verified offers and is committed to BYU. Li'Marcus Jones at Brentwood Academy is a four-star Colorado commit on 28. Antonio Keefer at Southwind is a four-star Ole Miss commit on 24.
Defensive line
Dallas Pauldo at Rockvale is the most recruited player in this preview at 73 verified offers. He committed to Maryland on 2026-07-11, choosing the Terrapins over Virginia Tech and Notre Dame. Ayden Woodruff, a four-star 2028 at Ravenwood, holds 35 and is uncommitted. Jamarkus Pittman at Memphis Academy of Science and Engineering is a four-star Ole Miss commit on 27.
Linebacker
Omarii Sanders at Franklin Road Academy (Nashville) is a four-star Vanderbilt commit with 40 verified offers. Kenneth Simon II at Brentwood Academy is a four-star Tennessee commit holding 28.
Cornerback
Romel Koon at Brentwood Academy holds 40 verified offers and is committed to Tulsa. Jermaine Cobbins at Springfield is the state's headline defensive back, a five-star 2028 with 39 offers and still uncommitted. Xavier Bowman, a four-star 2028 at Knoxville Catholic, holds 24.
Safety
Brooks Johnston at Knoxville Catholic, a 2028, holds 27 verified offers and is uncommitted. Jarrell Chandler at Halls (Knoxville) is a four-star Clemson commit, also on 27. Jaden Butler at Haywood (Brownsville) is committed to Tennessee with 17 offers and a production percentile in the 85th among safeties.
Athlete
Tae Walden Jr. at Collierville is a four-star Oregon commit with 39 verified offers and a production percentile in the 92nd. Dion Edwards, a four-star 2028 at Tyner Academy (Chattanooga), holds 36. Quincy Mills at Marion County (Jasper) carries 27.
The watch list: 10 recruits the rankings have not caught
These ten hold 85 verified Division 1 offers between them and carry zero stars on 247Sports, On3, Rivals and ESPN as of 2026-08-13. It is a ratings gap, not a discovery claim. Scope is class 2028, plus class 2029 only where the player has recorded production. Maddox Porter is deliberately not on this list even though he qualifies on paper, for the reason given in the receiver section.
- Troy Porties, CB, Brentwood Academy, 2028. 14 offers.
- Jakobe Butler, QB, Houston (Germantown), 2028. 14 offers.
- Luke Tritch, WR, Riverdale (Murfreesboro), 2029. 13 offers, 12 games of recorded stats.
- Brayden Dolan, LS, Beech (Hendersonville), 2028. 9 offers.
- Dylan Streeter, WR, Page (Franklin), 2028. 8 offers.
- Dante Wade, T, Baylor School (Chattanooga), 2028. 7 offers.
- Damari Allen, WR, Giles County (Pulaski), 2028. 5 offers.
- Kason McGowan, QB, Cleveland, 2028. 5 offers.
- Anthony Broome, ATH, East Hamilton (Ooltewah), 2028. 5 offers.
- Carter Charapata, S, Chattanooga Christian School, 2028. 5 offers.
Brayden Dolan is the one most people will skip past. Long snappers do not usually carry nine Division 1 offers.
The gem list, and why it is empty this week
Our gem model flags unrated, unoffered players it believes will not stay that way. A player only appears here publicly once he clears a hard evidence bar: at least three games of recorded statistics and at least one of those games against an opponent we can identify and rate.
No Tennessee player clears that bar today. Two come close, both with plenty of recorded games, but neither has a game logged against an opponent we can currently identify, so neither is published. That is a gap in our opponent data rather than a verdict on the players, and it should close as this season's game data lands. We would rather run an empty list than a list we cannot stand behind.
The programs producing the offers
Ranked by current-roster offer production, the sum of verified Division 1 offers held by every recruit on the roster in the 2027 through 2030 classes. These ten programs account for 1,738 verified offers.
- Brentwood Academy: 392 offers across 23 recruits
- Baylor School (Chattanooga): 237 across 21
- Riverdale (Murfreesboro): 187 across 9
- Page (Franklin): 151 across 15
- Germantown: 139 across 12
- Lipscomb Academy (Nashville): 132 across 16
- Christ Presbyterian Academy (Nashville): 129 across 13
- Collierville: 125 across 10
- Southwind (Memphis): 124 across 8
- Ensworth (Nashville): 122 across 13
Brentwood Academy is the most dominant single program in this series so far. Its 392 offers are 155 clear of the next school, and it placed a player in five of the ten position groups above. Riverdale is the concentration story instead: 187 offers across just 9 recruited players, more than 20 offers per player.
How we counted
Every number comes from the Recruit Intel canonical database, read on 2026-08-13. Offer counts are distinct college offers per player, not raw offer rows, and quarantined rows are excluded. Production percentiles are position-normalized across our verified database. Star status is zero only when it is zero on all four services, checked at read time.
Region membership is every Tennessee high school we track, 395 in total. Every player named here was re-verified against the current roster for class year, school, offer count and star status, and players sharing a name were resolved to a single record before publication rather than by name matching. That mattered in the linebacker group, where two separate records carry the same name and class in this state; only the record with a live recruiting profile and a verified commitment is used above.
One correction worth stating openly: an earlier version of our Tennessee preseason card listed Dallas Pauldo as a Virginia Tech commitment. That was wrong. He committed to Maryland on 2026-07-11, over Virginia Tech and Notre Dame, and this article carries the corrected commitment.
Kickoff is this week
Tennessee is one of the first states in the country to play. This is the Recruit Intel regional preview series, and more regions follow in kickoff order. The watch list above is dated on purpose. When those players get rated, the timestamp on this page is the receipt.