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Tennessee football: 5 reasons Vols were shut out of 2019 NFL Draft

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 15: A view of the outside of Neyland Stadium before a game between the Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers on September 15, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 15: A view of the outside of Neyland Stadium before a game between the Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers on September 15, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images) /
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Tennessee football being shut out of the 2019 NFL Draft is a paradox given past recruiting classes. Here are five reasons that happened to the Volunteers.

When he first took over as head coach of Tennessee football, Butch Jones immediately won over fan bases by securing a Top 5 recruiting class for 2014. He followed that up with another top 5 class in 2015.

At that point, fans thought the Vols were about to shoot up in stock. But the elite classes never panned out. That’s been proven over the last two years, which is when graduating players from those classes would have entered the NFL Draft. Over the course of two years, just one player from UT was drafted.

Now, to be fair, there were some key early departures, including three VFLs taken in the 2017 NFL Draft who were part of those classes. But that still makes for a grand total of four players from two top 5 classes in which over 30 guys were commitments for each one. And by allowing for early departures, you could also add in the top 15 class of 2016.

Sorry, but that’s beyond embarrassing when you talk about recruiting busts. And it hit bottom this year, as Tennessee football had no NFL Draft picks for the third time in five years after going over 50 consecutive years with a player being selected beforehand.

How did this happen? What were the reasons for such a disastrous downturn. Could anybody explain how such highly touted early recruiting classes could translate to no draft picks for this year? Sure, this past team was very young, but previous young Vols teams could put at least one player in the draft. We’re going to break down what happened here.

Before we get started, let’s be clear. This is obviously Butch Jones’s fault. Nobody needs to think twice about that. But the question is what happened under Jones for such highly touted prospects to get no love from the pros?

Well, it’s time to break that down here. And as you’ll see, it has many similarities to why the program tanked as a whole. These are the five key reasons Tennessee football was shut out of the fifth NFL Draft in five years.

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