Tennessee football: Vols top 30 players since 1998 national championship

I’ll be the first to admit this is a very controversial one. Very serious charges cut short A.J. Johnson’s final season with Tennessee football. However, a jury unanimously acquitted Johnson and a teammate of his charges in 2018 after deliberating for only 90 minutes. Charges that took three and a half years to go to trial were over in just an hour and a half. The defense didn’t even have to call a single witness to the stand.

Because of that, we have to go with the evidence we have. The evidence we have shows that Johnson is a two-time All-SEC player for Tennessee football, who was never convicted of any crime. After his acquittal, he’s been on the Denver Broncos ever since as well.

Johnson was a four-year player for the Vols back in the early part of this decade. Committing to Derek Dooley and then playing for Butch Jones, he had to play for three different defensive coordinators, both in the 4-3 and 3-4. But through all that, the guy had three-straight seasons of over 100 tackles, including the one that was cut short in 2014.

A second-team All-SEC player in 2012 and first-team All-SEC player in 2014, Johnson was a complete player. He’s second all-time in career tackles on Rocky Top with 424, and he has 30.5 tackles for a loss.

This doesn’t take into account that Jim Chaney used him in the Wildcat on offense as well. In 2012, Johnson had six touchdowns on goal line running plays, showing just how athletic and talented he was.

Simply put, he was a dominant force for Tennessee football through a very trying period for the program. As a result, he belongs on this list for his play on the field. Very few people have matched his level of college production.