2028 Tennessee Football QB Commit Kaden Craft Talks Game Day Atmosphere, Peer Recruiting Targets

The Tennessee Volunteers had a multitude of visitors in-town for the highly anticipated match-up between the Vols and the Longhorns of Texas.

The visitors were each at different stages of their recruiting process from the uncommitted, Volunteer commits, and those committed elsewhere.

The Sole commit for Tennessee football in the 2028 class was in attendance. This was not the first visit to Knoxville for the committed junior nor will it be the last.

2028 four-star Lake Norman (NC) QB Kaden Craft was on Rocky Top as Texas escaped Knoxville with a 20-17 win. Although it was not the outcome that many wanted, there were some positive takeaways from the day's contest.

Vols on SI would catch up with Craft to detail his time in Tennessee.

Checkered Neyland

"The atmosphere was electric today even though we lost," Craft told Vols on SI.

It has to be soothing for the Tennessee coaching staff to see Craft using possessive pronouns such as, "we," while discussing his future school. Remembering the talented quarterback is just a junior, there is time for schools to still try and pitch to the North Carolina native.

The atmosphere was top tier, and the crowd was as involved as you could ask for considering the early kick-off.

Craft was able to get a first-hand view on how Faizon Brandon handled the game and everything around it as a true freshman. It wasn't the cleanest of offensive performances that we've seen, but even with the inconsistency as a whole, the team kept fighting. Brandon's toughness and grit stood out.

"I think Faizon (Brandon) is very young, and this is a great team. We showed a lot of good things from that game and some things to work on. I also was amazed at his competitiveness and toughness throughout the game," Craft said.

Faizon Brandon was sacked 10 times during the day, including an exit that led the freshman to the training tent for a series before coming back to complete the game.

Peer Recruiting

2028 Tennessee QB commit Kaden Craft embracing fellow commits and prospects | Dale Dowden/@Dale_Dowden - Vols on SI/@VolsonSI

Switching gears to the recruiting side of things, Craft is the only 2028 commit that is currently in the boat, but the Lake Norman student-athlete is doing what he can in order to help build a class around him.

"Braylon (Clark) definitely is a top target," Craft admitted.

"I talked to pretty much everyone there, just trying to build a relationship. I got to talk to a lot to Grayson Williams (OL) and Braxton Rein (TE), who are big targets as well and who I have a good relationship with."

Rumor has it that Craft put a deal on the table for the 2028 WR Braylor Clark with the Texas game. Vols on SI will have more on that in a later story.

Craft committed to Tennessee on August 17, 2026, and recently received a huge bump in the rankings on Rivals.com

The four-star gunslinger jumped nearly 100 spots to land as the 34th best player overall in 2028, and ranked as the 4th best QB in the class.

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