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Tennessee Football Commit Talks Following Season Opener

2026 LB Brayden Rouse impacted the game on both sides of the ball.
Dale Dowden|
Brayden Rouse warming up prior to South Paulding game 2025
Brayden Rouse warming up prior to South Paulding game 2025 | Dale Dowden - Vols on SI

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Tennessee Volunteers

Tennessee football 2026 Kell (Ga.) LB Brayden Rouse was locked in and focused for the season opener at home against South Paulding for the Corky Kell + Dave Hunter Classic.

The Longhorns would go on to win big by a margin of 44 to 21.

"It went well," Rouse quickly said of the game.

"Both sides (of the ball), just proud of everybody. We had a rough scrimmage last week, and a lot of doubters going around and a lot of disrespect. So, big focus this week was just to come in here and handle business and play to our standard, and I feel like we did that on both sides, with our starters especially."

The 2026 commit did not have to speak a word for it to be known that disrespect was felt. The senior linebacker had a look that could have killed three armies as captains met for the coin toss. The look was evident.

"I was locked in. Some of the (opposing) coaches and players were saying I'm not a great player and some trash talk like that, so I definitely took it personal, and came out here and played the best I could," Rouse said.

This defender is not your typical linebacker as Rouse is often used in various way offensively to provide big plays for the offense, and it did not take long for that to be known as Rouse was an early target for a chunk play leading up to the first touchdown for Kell.

Later in the game Rouse would really impact the offense as the athletic defender put point on the board after hauling in a touchdown reception.

Reporters shared a few jokes with Rouse about William Inge urging the coveted linebacker to not catch a huge number of passes so that Alec Abeln doesn't get the idea to pull him to offense.

As laughs were shared, Rouse quickly alluded to who could potentially want to use him in Knoxville.

"When it comes to the stealing part, Coach Chop is trying to steal me a little bit for some defensive end stuff, so that's the argument they got," Rouse explained.

The Georgia based commit is set on being in Knoxville for as many games as possible in the fall, and will more than like be peer recruiting some guys during those visits.

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Dale Dowden
DALE DOWDEN

Dale Dowden is a multimedia sports writer with nearly 10 years in the recruiting field. He began covering recruiting in the Tennessee Vols market in 2019. From 2020-2022, Dale was with the Tennessee site at SI, before taking the Lead Recruiting role for VolReport on Rivals from 2023-2025.

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