Tennessee football: Vols top 30 players since 1998 national championship

While Michael Muñoz was a redshirt senior, Tennessee football brought in a five-star junior college transfer in Jesse Mahelona, who became as great of a leader on the defensive side of the ball for the Vols up front. Hailing from Hawaii, Mahelona immediately became a star.

That year, Parys Haralson was the only returning starter on the front-four. But the defense was able to reload with guys like Jason Hall, Karlton Neal and Justin Harrell, who would’ve likely made this list had an injury not cut short his 2006 season and really his NFL career.

Mahelona stepped and made an immediate impact. In 2004, he had 42 total tackles, but what stood out was that he racked up five sacks and registered 13 and a half tackles for a loss en route to an All-American season. Those are great numbers for a defensive tackle.

A drop-off of only two sacks and six tackles for a loss came the very next year, but Mahelona was still the anchor of that elite 2005 defense that I keep saying was wasted. So he deserves a lot of credit for that.

What stood out about Mahelona specifically was his heart. He had great technique and would wrap guys up by their ankles when tackling, not letting him go. This is why, despite being only 6-feet, he could use leverage in the middle. And he carried that into a three-year NFL career.

However, this ends tragically, as Mahelona was killed in a car crash in Hawaii in 2009. He was such a great person, as everybody around him knew, that the death was extremely sad. But his legacy lives on as an overachieving Vol with a ton of heart on Rocky Top.