Tee Higgins was playing basketball when he was told his greatest opportunity for success in the future would be on the football field.

It wasn't that Higgins, who was already almost 6-foot-3 and in the eighth grade at the time, wasn't a good basketball player. He was.

But former Oak Ridge football coach Joe Gaddis saw something in Higgins that made him believe Higgins would be better in cleats than in high tops.

"I said, 'Tee, you're a heck of a basketball player but with your height you have the chance to be a big-time star in football,'" Gaddis said. "'In football you're going to be a receiver and you're going to be a giant whereas in basketball there's a bunch of guys your size.'"

Gaddis also told Higgins if he concentrated on football he would play someday in college and the NFL.

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Gaddis was right. Higgins took his advice and starred at Oak Ridge where he was a two-time Tennessee Class 5A Mr. Football. He then became one of the nation's premier college receivers at Clemson and was part of the 2018 national championship team, and is now one of the best young receivers in the NFL.

Higgins, who kept playing basketball in high school but focused on football, will be back in Tennessee with the Cincinnati Bengals for the AFC divisional-round game against the Tennessee Titans at Nissan Stadium on Saturday (3:30 p.m. CT, CBS).

As Gaddis predicted, Higgins' length - he's now 6-4 - along with his speed and outstanding pass-catching skills helped him become part of a trio of Bengals receivers, who, along with quarterback Joe Burrow, are capable of giving opposing defenses fits.

Higgins, who missed two games with an injury early in the season, has 74 catches for 1,091 yards and six touchdowns. Ja'Marr Chase has 81 catches, 1,455 yards and 13 touchdowns and Tyler Boyd has 67 catches, 828 yards and five touchdowns.

Higgins made Gaddis' job easy during his three years at Oak Ridge on his way to becoming a five-star prospect, who initially committed to Tennessee before signing with Clemson. Higgins' Oak Ridge jersey No. 5 was retired in 2019.

"He was uncoverable, even as a freshman in high school," Gaddis said. "You could cover him but we'd just tell the quarterback, 'Throw him the ball. Whether he's covered or not, it doesn't matter. He's going to catch it.' "

It was one catch in particular at practice that even startled Gaddis, who coached for 38 years after getting his start at Tullahoma.

"I'd never seen anybody do this. We're running a slant route and Tee's running from right to left," Gaddis said. "The ball is thrown behind his head and he reaches back with his right hand and catches it. He can't see it. He just catches it and moves on. It's like it was planned. He didn't break stride. He caught it like they'd worked on it."

Gaddis took advantage of Higgins' immense talent putting him on defense against Oak Ridge's toughest opponents.

"We put him at corner in big games and he intercepted a pass or two early in the year and ran it back for a touchdown and he literally shut down that half of the field because no one would throw it over there," Gaddis said.

"We tried not to play him all the time on defense but he wanted to play defense. He wanted to match up against their best receivers always; it didn't matter whoever that was."

Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on Twitter @MikeOrganWriter.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How Cincinnati Bengals WR Tee Higgs made switch from hoops to football