Athlon didn’t forget about Tennessee football when looking at the top 50 college players of the last 50 years. Two former Volunteers made the list.
I could have made a case for about five more Tennessee football players to make the list. But Athlon was only able to recognize two.
With the Athlon era beginning 50 years ago, the media outlet put together its list of top 50 college football players since it began. And two Vols made it.
They’re also both pretty obvious. Peyton Manning came on the list at No. 45. Here’s what the organization said about Manning.
"Manning finished his career having rewritten the school passing record book and extensively edited the SEC record book. He left Knoxville in possession of conference marks for career wins as a starter, completions, completion percentage, passing yards and total offense, among others."
Even higher than Manning was Reggie White at No. 43. Here’s what was said about White.
"The Minister of Defense is better known for his Hall of Fame pro career, but he also had a dominant college career spent terrorizing SEC quarterbacks and running backs. White holds the school record for sacks in a single season with 15 in 1983 and only recently saw his school career sack record broken by Derek Barnett."
White was probably in a good spot, but Manning was embarrassingly low. Athlon’s highest ranked quarterback was Tim Tebow, which is just ridiculous. Everybody fixates on the national championships ignoring that he only started for one of those years, the fact that he stole the Heisman on a 9-4 team in 2007, and that he was really a game manager while Charlie Strong’s defense did the work.
Vince Young was even behind Tebow, even though he was way better. Young and Tebow joined Tommie Frazier, Cam Newton, John Elway, Matt Leinart, and Archie Manning as quarterbacks ranked ahead of Manning.
Young, Frazier, and Newton are all fair. We already mentioned Tebow was ridiculous. Well, so was Leinart, Elway, and Manning’s father.
Leinart was on a loaded USC team playing in the Pac-10 (at the time). But his was the least offensive.
Manning is only so low because he never beat Florida or won a national title. Well, Elway never went to a bowl game! How is he ahead of Manning?
And Manning’s father is arguably not even the best Manning at his own school. He never won any championships either! Peyton at least won an SEC Championship.
So while it was nice to see two Tennessee football stars rightfully recognized, one of them should have been much higher.