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BREAKING: LSU 5-star WR commit Tristen Keys flips to Tennessee

On3 imageby: Shea Dixon08/28/25sheadixon
Tennessee has flipped LSU 5-star WR commit Tristen Keys (Photo: Adidas)
Tennessee has flipped LSU 5-star WR commit Tristen Keys (Photo: Adidas)

Tristen Keys committed to LSU in March, and six months later, the 5-star and No. 1 wide receiver in the 2026 class reversed course.

On Thursday, Keys flipped his commitment to another Southeastern Conference program: the Tennessee Volunteers.

Though Keys was committed since March, the Mississippi native made official visits to Tennessee, Miami, Texas A&M, and LSU. He also made other unofficial visits to the aforementioned campuses.

While the past two months of the NCAA’s recruiting dead period remained quiet relative to where Keys stood with his commitment, his interest in making other visits while being committed to the Tigers was an indicator that the door was still open for a potential flip.

Now, the 5-star made it official.

LSU moves down to 17 commitments for the current 2026 recruiting class, which is now headlined by Baton Rouge 5-star Lamar Brown and New Orleans standout defensive lineman Richard Anderson, who is ranked as a Top 25 prospect by Rivals, regardless of position.

LSU now has two wide receivers committed in Louisiana 4-stars Jabari Mack and Kenny Darby.

Both are ranked inside the Rivals Top 300, with Mack checking in as the No. 8 receiver in the country. Darby, who is knocking on the door of breaking into Louisiana’s Top 5 overall prospects on Rivals, led the Bayou State in receiving as a junior in 2024.

LSU still holds one of CFB’s best recruiting classes – and the reason why

LSU coach Brian Kelly huddled with general manager Austin Thomas as the brain trust of the program built out the recruiting department with highly-capable and highly-credentialed staffers this off-season.

Assistant general manager Kelvin Bolden came from Ole Miss and has relationships with recruits and coaches across the country.

Director of player personnel Jeff Martin is a former LSU Tiger who keeps the staff on the cutting edge from an innovation and technology perspective. 

Director of scouting/personnel strategy Sam Petitto has worked at Ohio State, Georgia and other stops but is best known for his extensive work at Alabama under Nick Saban.

To build a team, sometimes you have to build your team first and that’s what Thomas, who returned to LSU after a stint at Ole Miss, and Kelly have done to get things kickstarted in recruiting even more.

“When you get people from the outside, sometimes they have the ability to show you a different way,” Thomas said during a recent media interview in Baton Rouge. “We want to be the best version of ourselves that we can be holistically as an organization so from that standpoint having Sam here who’s done it at the highest level whether that’s at Georgia or Alabama or Ohio State, he’s a guy who has a lot of experience and knows what it looks like and we lean into that. We welcome that.

“Kelvin is one of my best friends in the world, one of my first hires when I got to Oxford. He’s so smart, so talented, he’s a relationship-builder and a guy who’s going to help in that space tremendously.

“Jeff Martin is a former Tiger. Bleeds purple and gold. Really, really dynamic as far as his ability to build relationships, think on his feet, to keep us on the cutting edge from a technology and innovation standpoint.”

Recruiting has gone incredibly well since Kelly got to Baton Rouge. In all of his full recruiting classes, Kelly has never had one outside the top 10. 

(Editor’s note: Rivals Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney contributed to this report)

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