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

4. System and scheme changed too often. 

This didn’t just start with Jeremy Pruitt, although it didn’t help. However, before Pruitt ever arrived, Tennessee football recruits who entered the NFL Draft this year would have had to already deal with far too many schematic changes.

From 2014 to 2017, the Vols changed one coordinator every year. They replaced offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian with Mike DeBord in 2015. In 2016, they replaced defensive coordinator Jon Jancek with Bob Shoop. Then, in 2017, they replaced DeBord with Larry Scott, who had never been an offensive coordinator.

In the process, so many transitions never allowed any players to thrive in any sort of scheme, and it held them back. With the arrival of Jeremy Pruitt, things were only going to hurt them worse, as he switched both coordinators to Tyson Helton on offense and himself and Kevin Sherrer on defense. Ironically, both of those have changed as well.

But his schematic changes included going from a 4-3 nickel-heavy package to a 3-4 and going from a spread to a pro-style. That was bound to limit players’ ability to show what they could do, particularly on offense.

Now, the defensive line was able to thrive in the new system, as Alexis Johnson, Kyle Phillips and Shy Tuttle all had breakout years. But it wasn’t enough given everything that happened, and NFL teams weren’t going to take enough notice. That was obviously going to make it very hard to have anybody taken in the NFL Draft.