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Tennessee football: Coaches responsible for Vols worst draft decade ever

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 12: Lane Kiffin, head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers talks in the press conference after a game against the UCLA Bruins on September 12, 2009 at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee. UCLA beat Tennessee 19-15. (Photo by Joe Murphy/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 12: Lane Kiffin, head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers talks in the press conference after a game against the UCLA Bruins on September 12, 2009 at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee. UCLA beat Tennessee 19-15. (Photo by Joe Murphy/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Tyler Lecka/Getty Images
Photo by Tyler Lecka/Getty Images /

Tennessee football’s horrible performance in the NFL Draft during the 2010s falls on five Volunteers head coaches. Here’s how they rank by responsibility.

The historic failure of Tennessee football in the NFL Draft this decade can be attributed to numerous things: attrition among coaches and administrators, bad coaching hires in general, investigations, a divided base of boosters, and even a poor medical staff at times. These are all things that led to the downward spiral of the Vols to begin with.

But after being shut out of their third NFL Draft in five years over the weekend to close out the decade, the Vols doubled the total number of drafts they were shut out of in the 2010s alone compared to their entire history before then. That makes a statement to how far they’ve fallen.

So who’s at fault? Well, when it comes to lack of NFL talent, the blame falls on the coaches. They are the ones who have to identify the talent, recruit the talent, develop the talent, and win with that talent to raise their players’ draft profiles. The last thing is for them to make sure they have a good strength and medical staff to keep the players healthy.

Each of the last five full-time Tennessee football head coaches bear some responsibility for the lack of success this program had in the NFL Draft this decade, but who gets the largest share. Well, in this post, we’re going to dish it all out.

Our post will rank the coaches based on the talent they signed that ended up making NFL rosters. But it will also take into account the number of years they were on Rocky Top and the situations they left and had to deal with. All of this matters when it comes to putting out NFL talent.

This is not necessarily a ranking of these guys’ overall skills as a head coach, although there will be some similarities. Instead, this looks at what they did to the Vols and their role in ruining the program’s reputation among recruits as an NFL factory.

With all that taken into account, who gets the most blame? And what responsibility does each coach have in creating this issue. Find out here with our ranking among the previous five Tennessee football coaches based on their role in the Vols having their worst decade ever for the NFL Draft.

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