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Tennessee football: Top 10 Vols who played for Johnny Majors

By Caleb Calhoun

ANAHEIM, CA - AUGUST 26: Wide receiver Carl Pickens #15 of the Tennessee Volunteers runs with the ball against the Colorado Buffaloes during the Pigskin Classic at Anaheim Stadium on August 26, 1990 in Anaheim, California. The Buffs and Vols tied 31-31. (Photo by Bernstein Associates/Getty Images)
ANAHEIM, CA - AUGUST 26: Wide receiver Carl Pickens #15 of the Tennessee Volunteers runs with the ball against the Colorado Buffaloes during the Pigskin Classic at Anaheim Stadium on August 26, 1990 in Anaheim, California. The Buffs and Vols tied 31-31. (Photo by Bernstein Associates/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Allsport/Getty Images
Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Allsport/Getty Images /

These were the best Tennessee football Volunteers under head coach Johnny Majors.

Note: This is part of a series of posts remembering Johnny Majors and all that he accomplished for Tennessee football as a player and a coach. 

Throughout his tenure with Tennessee football, Johnny Majors coached 14 players who would become NCAA All-Americans, numerous future NFL starters and Pro Bowlers and a future Hall-of-Famer. By the late 1980s, he had loaded up the Vols with talent.

Majors was the first coach to truly take Rocky Top national, going all over the country to find talent. It’s what made the Vols successful even after he left and why Phillip Fulmer was able to win the national championship in 1998.

When you talk about the greatest players in Tennessee football history, many of them were recruited, coached and developed by Majors. He established a legacy of numerous players who would become UT superstars in their own right.

But which Vols stood out in that group? Who managed to become the best among the best? In this post, we’re going to rank the greatest players on Rocky Top during Majors’ head coaching tenure there from 1977 to 1992.

Our criteria for this list is pretty simple. We’re looking at player accomplishments. Now, they don’t have to have fully played for Majors. For instance, players who played in 1975, 1976, 1993, 1994 and 1995 could theoretically make the list.

However, what stands out about their greatness has to have happened under Majors. For instance, John Becksvoort was an All-American and Heath Shuler was a Heisman Trophy runner-up in 1993, when Fulmer was starting, despite both of them playing for Majors. Since what stands out about them happened under Fulmer, they wouldn’t make this list.

Even with that specific criteria, there are numerous VFLs who make this list. They worked with Majors to help re-establish the program to national prominence, whether it was for a season or over a four-year career. Let’s take a look at who was most responsible for that and how significant they were to UT. These are Tennessee football’s 10 greatest Vols who played under Majors.

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