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Tennessee football: Vols top five seasons following draft with under three picks

By Caleb Calhoun

1 Jan 1990: Running back James Rouse of the Arkansas Razorbacks runs down the field during the Cotton Bowl against the Tennessee Volunteers in Dallas, Texas. Tennessee won the game 31-27. Mandatory Credit: Joe Patronite /Allsport
1 Jan 1990: Running back James Rouse of the Arkansas Razorbacks runs down the field during the Cotton Bowl against the Tennessee Volunteers in Dallas, Texas. Tennessee won the game 31-27. Mandatory Credit: Joe Patronite /Allsport /
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Photo by Joe Patronite /Allsport
Photo by Joe Patronite /Allsport /

Having a light NFL Draft can sometimes mean an amazing season to follow for Tennessee football. Here are five times that happened with the Volunteers.

When an elite program like Tennessee football has very few players selected in an NFL Draft, it could mean one of two things. The first thing it could mean is that the Vols are just in a really bad place as a program without lots of talent. However, it could also mean they just had a very young team the previous year and have lots of talent returning.

It’s a little bit of both in the case of the 2020 NFL Draft. The Vols certainly were light on veteran talent because of what Jeremy Pruitt inherited from Butch Jones, and that’s why they went from no players drafted to just two players drafted.

On the other hand, Tennessee football only had nine players who actually player last year and were part of that senior class, and they didn’t have any underclassmen leave. So they just had a really young team that went 8-5, and that could spell good news for the future.

If you look at history, some of UT’s greatest seasons came after a light draft, and the two were indeed connected. The Vols were loaded with young talent, so few people were taken, and they all returned, making for an amazing season.

In this post, we’re going to rank the Vols’ greatest seasons in which they came off an NFL Draft with fewer than three people taken. The seasons directly followed that draft, so they happened the same year.

As you’ll see, these are some of the most legendary years in the history of Rocky Top. Spoiler alert: 1998 won’t be on there. That was a different story, as UT had tons of players fill the draft and shocked the world by winning the national title anyway.

These seasons make a bit more sense, and we’ll explain why. Let’s go ahead and break down all of them. Here are Tennessee football’s five greatest years coming off an NFL Draft with fewer than three people taken.

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