Tennessee football: Ranking all 9 former Vols in AAF by potential

Another former Tennessee football player who was dismissed from the team, Montori Hughes is also another guy who might be a better fit for the NFL than the AAF. Hughes played for Lane Kiffin and then Derek Dooley before being dismissed at the end of the 2010 season.

However, before that, he picked up 37 tackles, five and a half tackles for a loss, a sack, three pass deflections and two forced fumbles over those two years. At 6’4″ 350 pounds, Hughes is the prototypical nose tackle that you would want in a 3-4 defense.

But unless he’s playing that specific role, he’s going to be a bit limited in the AAF. With the coaches in that league bound to spread out the offenses, it’s hard to see how he could make any impact on defense. Stopping the air raid requires defensive tackles to be able to run stunts and different techniques.

Hughes just doesn’t have the style of play to fit that. And Dennis Thurman is the defensive coordinator for the Memphis Express, where he’s playing. Thurman runs a standard 4-3 and looks for different blitz packages. Now, the good news for Hughes is Thurman’s style doesn’t require as many stunts up front. But it could still make it hard for him to make any impact against the offenses.