Five-star OT David Sanders, the top uncommitted prospect in the 2025 class, committed to Tennessee, landing with the Volunteers as the top-ranked prospect in the program's rising 2025 recruiting class and the highest-rated pledge of the Josh Heupel era.
'Walking out of there, it was a weight lifted off my shoulders': Why Malachi Nelson sought a fresh start at Boise StateTennessee's Josh Heupel discusses mentoring athletes and explains the greatness that can be achieved when you let talent like QB Nico Iamaleava embrace themselves. Eli Lederman covers college football and recruiting for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 2024 after covering the University of Oklahoma for Sellout Crowd and the Tulsa World.
For Sanders, Saturday's pledge marked the culmination of a lengthy recruitment that began just after his freshman season in late 2021, included visits to SEC, Big Ten and ACC powers and closed this week with last-minute pushes from some of the nation's top programs before his announcement inside the gym at Providence Day.
The No. 1 offensive tackle in the 2025, Sanders is the latest addition to one of the elite offensive line classes being constructed in the current cycle, joining five-star offensive tackle Douglas Utu and four-star offensive guard Nic Moore , another pair of key commitments in Tennessee's productive summer on the recruiting trail.
Michigan was first to offer Sanders in Dec. 2021, and Tennessee joined the flurry of Power 4 programs to follow in the early months of 2022. Across his sophomore and junior years, Sanders' list of unofficial visits included Alabama, Georgia, Florida State, Ohio State and Clemson, along with trips to programs closer to home in South Carolina, North Carolina and N.C. State.
Sanders made Tennessee one of his six official visits this spring. Other trips included stops at Alabama, Georgia and Clemson, but it was Ohio State and Nebraska who emerged as finalists alongside Tennessee this summer.flipped from Georgia to Nebraska. The pair of five-star prospects grew close during their respective recruitments, and Raiola was pivotal in the Huskers' push as Matt Rhule went hard for Sanders' pledge.
"Tennessee treated me like family from Day 1," Sanders continued."It was definitely the place I felt most at home. The locker room. The recruitment. They have a great class coming in and I look forward to being a part of it and going in there and getting better."
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