Tennessee football: 5 Vols 2018 seniors who had the best careers

Alexis Johnson could have a case to be higher on this if he wasn’t just a one-year wonder. But to be fair to him, that one year was the first year he was fully healthy and got to play for a competent coaching staff that knew how to maximize his potential.

Nobody has benefitted from Tennessee football’s switch to the 3-4 more than Johnson. He has embraced the role fully, and in the process, he’s been the top playmaker at defensive tackle. Johnson has 40 tackles, two sacks and four tackles for a loss this year.

More importantly, Johnson has been critical to getting major pushes that allow linebackers to make plays on the outside. He’s thrived in this role, and Jeremy Pruitt may have turned him into an NFL prospect. That’s what he always should have been.

In 2016, Johnson was a four-star junior college recruit. He committed to the Vols but then had to deal with a legal issue that kept him out of football shape. Following that, he was injured. He did register two sacks and 14 tackles in 2017, but he wasn’t really generating headlines. This year, though, Johnson has leaped off the screen multiple times. His career on Rocky Top has earned lots of respect because of this senior season, and it’s safe to say he finished with a bang.