Tee Higgins Names Top 5: Which Team Needs 5-Star WR the Most?

For the second time in the month of May, the list of suitors for 5-star receiver Tee Higgins has shrunk.

After recently naming a top 10, the 6’4 ½”, 188-pound playmaker tweeted out his top five in order on Monday evening:

The nation’s No. 3 receiver and the No. 16 player overall in the 2017 cycle has Tennessee—the school he was once committed to—at the top of his leaderboard.

Among the powers trying to lure the Oak Ridge High School (Tennessee) product out of his home state are Clemson, Ohio State, Florida State and Ole Miss.

With his short list of finalists set, which program out of that group needs Higgins the most?

Any school would love to land a prospect with the type of talent and upside that Higgins possesses.

However, there are a handful of reasons that no school would hurt more than the Volunteers if he chose to head elsewhere.

For starters, head coach Butch Jones would love to keep the state’s top overall prospect in-state for the third time since taking over the program after the 2012 season.

Another reason that Higgins is perhaps the most critical piece to the Volunteers' 2017 class is the team’s struggles to move the ball through the air under Jones.

According to CFBStats.com, Tennessee finished 92nd nationally in passing offense in 2015. Furthermore, over the last three years, the Vols’ average finish in that category has been 91st nationally.

Year	Pass Offense National Rank	SEC Rank
2013	111	13
2014	71	8
2015	92	9

By comparison, Clemson, Florida State and Ole Miss had passing attacks that finished in the top 40 overall nationally last season.

Ohio State, which finished eight spots below the Vols last season, has had four receivers drafted in the last two years with three of them coming in the first three rounds.

The Vols brought in four 3-star receivers in their 2016 class and have a pair of pass-catchers committed in the current cycle in 4-star KD Nixon and 3-star Jacquez Jones—both of whom are under 6'0" and may be better suited to man the slot position at the next level.

Higgins has taken notice of the Vols’ struggles in that area, as detailed by Ryan Callahan of 247Sports.

“It would be great to see Tennessee actually getting the passing game good, because their run game is real great with Alvin (Kamara) and Jalen (Hurd) back there,” Higgins told Callahan. “If they get the passing game going, Tennessee, they can win it out. They had a bad season passing the ball, like, two years straight. I mean, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as good as they wanted it to be, so I’m pretty sure that’s what they’re looking to (improve).”

A huge step in getting that problem fixed would be adding Higgins to a roster that has been upgraded each year under Jones.

With the Vols now atop his leaderboard, the biggest challenge for Jones and his staff will be fending off the likes of the Tigers, Buckeyes, Seminoles and Rebels for one of the nation’s premier skill players in the 2017 cycle.

Sanjay Kirpalani is a National Recruiting Analyst for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes obtained firsthand, and all recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports.