{"id":361139,"date":"2026-08-03T00:33:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T00:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/361139\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T00:33:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T00:33:14","slug":"the-tennessee-vols-have-a-chance-to-deal-the-florida-gators-a-painful-blow-and-theyre-working-hard-to-make-it-happen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/361139\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tennessee Vols have a chance to deal the Florida Gators a painful blow, and they&#8217;re working hard to make it happen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Josh Heupel and the Tennessee Vols are trying to give Florida Gators head coach Jon Sumrall a rude welcome to the SEC. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"2112\" height=\"1288\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-02-at-3.27.57-PM.png\" class=\"attachment-1280 size-1280 wp-post-image\" alt=\"Tennessee Vols\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  data-hero=\"atoz-hero\" \/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUSA Today images<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Josh Heupel and the Tennessee Vols are on the hunt for more five-star recruits. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Vols landed a commitment from 2027 five-star running back David Gabriel Georges last month, and they\u2019re <a href=\"https:\/\/atozsports.com\/nashville\/volunteers\/tennessee-has-secret-weapon-vols-ohio-state-5-star-commit-dj-jacobs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">hoping to flip<\/a> 2027 five-star EDGE DJ Jacobs from Ohio State. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tennessee is also apparently trying to flip 2027 five-star offensive lineman Maxwell Hiller from Florida. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hiller, 6-foot-5\/300 pounds from Coatesville, PA, is rated by 247Sports as the No. 1 interior offensive lineman in the nation and the No. 2 overall player in the 2027 recruiting class. He\u2019s been committed to Florida since April. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The five-star offensive lineman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/news\/5-star-flip-watch-brewster-royal-other-elite-prospects-whose-commitments-are-shakier-than-they-look\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">told On3<\/a> this week that Tennessee is telling him to \u201ccome back and take visits.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hiller also noted that LSU and Tennessee are the schools he\u2019s hearing from the most (outside of his communication with Florida). <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For now, Hiller is solidly committed to Florida, but that could change with just one phone call or visit. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the Vols to have a real chance to flip Hiller, they\u2019ll likely need to get him on campus for a gameday visit this fall. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If Tennessee could somehow flip Jacobs from Ohio State and Hiller from Florida, it would give the Vols commitments from the top two players in the 2027 recruiting class (Jacobs is rated as the No. 1 player in the class). <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-07-29-at-3.56.37-PM-200x200.png\" alt=\"Tennessee Vols football\" loading=\"lazy\"   width=\"200\" height=\"200\" style=\"object-position:50% 50%\"\/>\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/atozsports.com\/nashville\/volunteers\/ryan-day-vols-david-gabriel-georges-to-tennessee-subtle-messages-5-star-rb\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tRyan Day sounds like he\u2019s upset about losing David Gabriel Georges to Tennessee and now he\u2019s sending not-so-subtle messages to the 5-star RB\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"is-style-body-small\">2027 five-star running back David Gabriel Georges committed to Tennessee over Ohio State last week, and Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day doesn\u2019t seem to be taking it well. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tJuly 29, 2026\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-01-at-9.59.31-AM-200x200.png\" alt=\"Tennessee Vols football\" loading=\"lazy\"   width=\"200\" height=\"200\" style=\"object-position:50% 50%\"\/>\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/atozsports.com\/nashville\/volunteers\/coach-important-comments-freshman-qb-sec-tennessee-vols-fans-football\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tCoach drops important comments about playing a freshman QB in the SEC that all Tennessee Vols fans need to hear\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"is-style-body-small\">The Tennessee Vols will be starting either redshirt freshman George MacIntyre or true freshman Faizon Brandon this fall. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tAugust 1, 2026\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Josh Heupel and the Tennessee Vols are trying to give Florida Gators head coach Jon Sumrall a rude&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,31476],"class_list":["post-361139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-tennessee-vols"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}