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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 George Gojkovich/Getty Images
Photo by George Gojkovich/Getty Images /

4. 1956: 10-1 (6-0)

SEC Championship; Sugar Bowl; No. 2 AP and Coaches

Number of 1956 NFL Draft picks: 2

  • Tom Tracy, RB (Detroit Lions: Round 5; Pick 50)
  • Buddy Cruze, E (Chicago Bears: Round 12; Pick 143)

We go from the best Tennessee football team Johnny Majors coached to the team that he led, which was the best team between Robert Neyland and his tenure on Rocky Top. Majors was a senior on the 1956 team, which was in its second year under Bowden Wyatt. The year before, Wyatt replaced Harvey Robinson, who did not keep the program afloat as Neyland’s replacement.

Because of that, recruiting suffered, and Wyatt had a very young team in 1955. Most of the holdover elite recruits from the Neyland years loaded up the 1955 draft class, and the only two remaining in 1956 were Tom Tracy and Buddy Cruze. Well, Tracy enjoyed a decade-long career in the pros and made two Pro Bowls. Cruze, meanwhile, was actually able to return for 1956.

As a result, the focus of the 1955 team was developing some of the young talent that Wyatt had. They all came back for 1956, and so did Cruze, and that’s why the season was such a success. Majors, a Neyland recruit, was the star, and he and Cruze were All-Americans. Bill Johnson, an All-American in 1957, also started on that team, and Majors should have won the Heisman.

With this leadership, UT went 10-0 in the regular season, highlighted by a 6-0 win over the No. 2 ranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Both teams would beat everybody else they played. However, the Oklahoma Sooners won the national title, and UT lost the Sugar Bowl 13-7 to the Baylor Bears. Still, this was a legendary team.

Shockingly, though, they only had two players taken in the 1957 draft as well. It was 1958 when this team finally got represented in the pros, similar to how the 2000 draft class was deeper than the 1999 draft class.

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