Yes, Kahlil McKenzie belongs on this list as well. In fact, he and Drew Richmond are somewhat in the same boat.
FanSided
Both are players in the trenches who committed to the Vols as five-star members of the 2015 Tennessee football recruiting class. And both generated tons of hype going into this year.
However, there’s one big difference: McKenzie didn’t redshirt last year. He saw lots of in-game action, and going into this year he touted the fact that he got his weight down to 315 pounds.
Now, the 6’3″ sophomore should be blowing up plays and drawing comparisons to John Henderson at this point. But we have barely called his number the past three games.
Other guys up front on the Tennessee football defensive line have been leaping off the screen. That includes Kendal Vickers, Derek Barnett, Danny O’Brien, Corey Vereen, and even Shy Tuttle. Heck, we have even heard Jonathan Kongbo’s name. But McKenzie is noticeably quiet for a guy who had so many expectations.
So far, McKenzie only has four tackles, only one of which is solo. He does have a sack, a forced fumble, and a pass broken up. But the sack is his only tackle for a loss.
Against the Ohio Bobcats, McKenzie showed a decent bit of improvement, but he was playing against a team that is drastically weak on the offensive line. And he had a ton of help from the play on the ends.
So McKenzie needs to develop more into a superstar role. He is too great to be this quiet so far. Maybe he’ll be like Barnett and save his greatness for SEC games. We’re about to fin