Tennessee football makes Top 5 for 4-star RB from the Sooner State

Recruiting is going into overdrive now that the 2024 season is over. The Tennessee football team has been making splashes in the transfer portal, with running back Star Thomas and interior offensive lineman Sam Pendleton being the latest commitments.

As for the 2026 class, head man Josh Heupel holds eight known verbals, but he’s going to work to keep things climbing with spring ball sneaking up on us. A name for Tennessee fans to keep an eye on moving forward is no question running back Kaydin Jones.

Jones is a 5-10, 175-pounder out of Jenks High in Oklahoma. Throughout his recruitment, Jones has picked up 25 scholarship offers, but he has trimmed his list down to five schools. In some good news for Heupel and his staff, Tennessee has made the cut:

#AGTG TOP 5 ‼️‼️‼️ Where’s home?? pic.twitter.com/Itfiye6zcZ

— kaydin “batman” jones (@kaydinjoness) January 22, 2025

4-star RB Kaydin Jones has included Tennessee in his Top 5

Per the 247Sports Composite, Jones is ranked the No. 19 running back in the country and the No. 3 prospect overall from Oklahoma. In addition to Tennessee, Jones said Oklahoma, Kansas, Vanderbilt and Louisville are the programs still in contention to sign him.

There’s still a long way to go until the Early Signing Period for 2026 recruits gets here next December, but Jones already has a good idea of where he’s going to want to be playing at the next level. You’d think home-state Oklahoma would be in the lead, but it feels like things are pretty wide open between his finalists.

Tennessee has enjoyed watching Dylan Sampson put on a show for this offense, which of course led the way to him taking home SEC Offensive Player of the Year honors. Vols running backs are always fun to watch, which is something Heupel and his staff can sell Jones on. There’s no set timeline for when the speedster will make his final decision, but the Vols appear to be in a good spot here.