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Top five NFL careers of Tennessee football kickers, punters, snappers

By Caleb Calhoun

LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 19: Dustin Colquitt #2 of the Kansas City Chiefs punts the ball against the Los Angeles Rams in the first quarter of the game at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on November 19, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 19: Dustin Colquitt #2 of the Kansas City Chiefs punts the ball against the Los Angeles Rams in the first quarter of the game at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on November 19, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Todd Warshaw /AllSport
Photo by Todd Warshaw /AllSport /

These are the greatest pro careers of Tennessee football Volunteers in the kicking game.

Note: This is part of a series of posts looking back on Tennessee football players who had the best NFL careers at each position.

Largely due to one family but with help of others, Tennessee football has gained a reputation as Punter U. However, the kicking game as a whole, from place kickers to punters to even long snappers, has seen stars from UT in the pros.

Amidst a slide over the past decade, the Vols have managed to stand out even more in this area. There are currently three starting punters in the NFL from Rocky Top, four punters on NFL rosters and a Pro Bowl long snapper.

Throughout its history, Tennessee football has produced elite special teams players. Relative to the talent at the time, guys like Bert Rechichar stood out above all others as place kickers. However, even within the context of overall talent, UT has had its share of guys.

In this post, we’re going to rank the players affiliated with the kicking game from the Vols who had the best pro careers. To break this down, we won’t be including return specialists. Those guys usually played other positions and stood out in the return game, such as Cordarrelle Patterson.

These players had to specifically play in the pros as specialist, so largely kickers, punters, snappers and even holders. The guys we’re looking at on this list enjoyed at least decade of success playing in the NFL and were highly productive.

Ahead of naming the players, we should note that the decade-minimum does leave some guys off this list, including current NFL punters Trevor Daniel and Michael Palardy. Other guys from Rocky Top who were solid at the next level included punters Tom Hutton, Ron Widby and Craig Colquitt.

So just how productive were all these players? What level of success did they have at the pro level? Let’s break that down here. These are Tennessee football’s five special teams players who had the best NFL careers.

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