Tennessee football: NFL draft proves Vols 2013 class overachieved

Butch Jones’s first recruiting class with Tennessee football proved to be made of dramatic overachievers after the Volunteers taken in the 2017 NFL Draft.

Remember after Tennessee football hired Butch Jones as head coach and he failed to put together a solid recruiting class for 2013? That was one of the darkest periods for the Vols, and nobody really know what to expect for the future.

Jones quickly began to win over fans thanks to his recruiting in 2014 and 2015. However, he raised legitimate red flags since he couldn’t score any last-minute commits for 2013.

Tennessee’s class had only five four-stars, no five-stars, and 22 commitments overall to finish outside of the Top 20 on Rivals in recruiting rankings and outside of the Top 10 in the SEC.

Well, it turns out that the 2013 class, while low in star quality, had lots of key players.

Otherwise, Tennessee football wouldn’t worry about having to replace so many guys this year.

And the NFL Draft proved that.

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Let’s start with last year, when Marquez North left early for the NFL Draft. He wasn’t taken, but he’s still under contract with the Los Angeles Rams. That counts for something.

Jalen Reeves-Maybin was another one. He went to the Detroit Lions in the draft and will likely start immediately this Fall.

Reeves-Maybin and North were two of the five four-stars on the team. But then you have Cameron Sutton and Joshua Dobbs.

Both were three-star recruits, and both went to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the third and fourth round respectively of this year’s NFL Draft.

After Dobbs and Sutton, you have Corey Vereen, Dylan Wiesman and Malik Foreman all signing with NFL teams.

LaTroy Lewis also signed, but he was with the 2012 class.

Still, that’s five three-stars in a recruiting class with only 22 commitments getting a look from NFL rosters this year, and seven players overall have signed contracts with NFL rosters from that class.

Three more players from that class who redshirted in 2013 will likely start for Tennessee football this year. They are three-stars Brett Kendrick, Josh Smith, and Kendal Vickers.

And all three could find spots on NFL rosters next tear. That’s 10 of 22 commitments who could get looks from NFL teams. They all came from a mediocre 2013 Tennessee football recruiting class.

Then there are transfers from that class doing well.

The Cincinnati Bengals signed Jason Carr, a four-star defensive lineman who transferred to West Georgia.

And then there’s Riley Ferguson. A three-star quarterback just like Dobbs he transferred out of Tennessee.

Ferguson is about to enter his second year with the Memphis Tigers. And he is putting up record passing numbers.

He’ll definitely be an NFL Draft pick in the future. So now we’re at 12 of 22 commitments who could be on NFL rosters within two years from a disappointing recruiting class.

That’s a pretty impressive feat for Tennessee football. The members of this class all deserve credit for helping to restore the program to relevance.

Nobody thought that would be the case when they first committed to the Vols.

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Tennessee football: NFL draft proves Vols 2013 recruiting class dramatically overachieved

By Caleb Calhoun | May 1, 2017

Butch Jones’s first recruiting class with Tennessee football proved to be made of dramatic overachievers after the Volunteers taken in the 2017 NFL Draft.