When Phillip Fulmer had Tennessee football at its peak, his recruiting strategy was clear. Establish pipelines into Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, wall off the state of Tennessee from solid to elite players, and then poach players from neighboring and bordering states like Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Ohio.
Josh Heupel has the Vols doing that once again with their most recent pickup. Edge rusher Hezekiah Harris, a four-star for 2026 across the board, flipped from the Auburn Tigers to the Vols Monday afternoon. That follows five-star wide receiver Tristen Keys flipping to UT from the LSU Tigers last Thursday.
Harris is from Alabama, and Keys is from Mississippi. They both followed Kamari Blair, an in-state fringe four-star offensive lineman who flipped from the South Carolina Gamecocks back to the Vols. These flips prove Tennessee football is back to poaching players from neighboring states and walling off their own.
Alabama has been walled off for nearly 20 years given what Nick Saban built the Crimson Tide into, and Auburn was on that level at different times as well. However, with Kalen DeBoer struggling and Hugh Freeze preferring golf to recruiting, UT might be smelling blood the way it did in the early 2000s.
Coming from Huntsville, Ala., Harris is from Tide country being in the northern part of the state. By committing to Auburn initially, UT was going to have to fight off both schools for the Jemison High School propspect to land him. They did just that, and following getting a Mississippi kid to flip from LSU, the Vols are looking dangerous.
At 6’5″ 235 pounds, Harris already has the frame to be an elite edge rusher in the SEC, and his highlight reel shows an impressive level of versatility that includes being able to play in the middle at times. Coming from Alabama, that’s not relative either, even if the competition in the Huntsville area is not what it is down in Mobile.
What they lack in competition they make up for in great coaching in that region, so Harris is the type of edge rusher with likely a slightly lower ceiling than your average four-star but somebody who could make an immediate impact. Also, make no mistake, that doesn’t mean he can’t be great.
With Harris’ flip, Tennessee football now has 25 commitments for 2026, including 12 four-stars and three five-stars, per 247Sports Composite. Their ranking is now No. 7 nationally and No. 5 in the SEC, and if the Week 1 trends we just saw continue, that could change even moreso very soon.
