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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 Scott Halleran/Getty Images
Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images /

1. Butch Jones

Future NFL Draft picks signed: 9

Years at Tennessee in 2010s: 5

In terms of numbers, Lane Kiffin could be ahead of Butch Jones when you look at damage done to a program. But Jones was Tennessee football’s head coach for five years, and the results of being shut out of the 2019 NFL Draft represent a gross failure on his end.

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Jones didn’t secure as much of a bust of a class as Kiffin, but he secured to moderately bust classes in 2014 and 2015. Both were in the top 5, but so much of the talent from those classes either transferred out or just didn’t work out.

Now, to be fair to Jones, he signed nine future NFL Draft picks. And he gets the benefit of that solid 2017 NFL Draft, in which six guys were taken in the first four rounds. But one interesting fact is that two of those guys, Cameron Sutton and Jalen Reeves-Maybin, committed to Derek Dooley.

So with nobody being taken in this 2019 draft class, that means in five years, only seven players who committed to Jones were taken in the draft after you consider the 2018 numbers. You can’t have a more embarrassing look than that.

The mess Jones inherited was nowhere near the mess Dooley inherited, and as we said, Kiffin didn’t fail long enough on Rocky Top to do the damage Jones did. Heck, even being shut out of the 2015 and 2016 draft classes included numerous players mostly coached by Jones who could never build their draft profile.

Next. Vol football's top 30 players since 1998. dark

There’s no doubt Jones is the most responsible coach for Tennessee football’s situation right now, and he’s also the most responsible coach for their NFL Draft failures. Jones, Kiffin and Dooley are all largely responsible for things that went wrong, but Jones’s stamp on the program is what puts him ahead of the others.

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