All for Tennessee
Fansided

Ranking Tennessee football’s previous 10 draft classes with five picks

By Caleb Calhoun

Tennessee's (98) Parys Haralson heads for the fans at the end of the fifth overtime and their win over Alabama. 10/25/2003Utalabama6 Mp227
Tennessee's (98) Parys Haralson heads for the fans at the end of the fifth overtime and their win over Alabama. 10/25/2003Utalabama6 Mp227 /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 10
Next
Nov 13, 2021; Knoxville, Tennessee, USA; Tennessee Power T on the field before a game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Georgia Bulldogs at Neyland Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bryan Lynn-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 13, 2021; Knoxville, Tennessee, USA; Tennessee Power T on the field before a game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Georgia Bulldogs at Neyland Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bryan Lynn-USA TODAY Sports /

Last weekend marked the 11th time in Tennessee football history the Vols had five players taken in one NFL Draft. It’s the 12th time if you don’t count Ed Nickla, who transferred from UT, in the 1955 class. However, Nickla’s most recent college was the Vols when he was drafted, so he was technically the sixth pick from there.

Although a draft with five picks isn’t anywhere near the best class Rocky Top has ever enjoyed, it usually comes with at least a couple of guys who had successful NFL careers. How did the previous classes stack up against each other? This post will set out to analyze just that.

Classes will be ranked based on the cumulative NFL productivity of the players drafted. Criteria include the total number of years, games and starts by players in a class, the number of players who truly contributed to that and Pro Bowlers. Here is a ranking of the previous 10 Tennessee football NFL Draft classes with five picks before 2022.

10. 1940

  • Round 1: George Cafego – Chicago Cardinals (Pick 1)
  • Round 6: Jim Rike – Detroit Lions (Pick 46)
  • Round 11: Boyd Clay – Cleveland Rams (Pick 95)
  • Round 13: Sam Bartholomew – Washington Football Team (Pick 118)
  • Round 14: Len Coffman – Brooklyn Dodgers (Pick 124)

The golden age of UT history during the end of Robert Neyland’s second stint saw very successful NFL Drafts. This class saw the first of only two No. 1 picks in the history of Rocky Top, the second coming 58 years later with Peyton Manning. Ironically, the Vols won national championships the year after both players were drafted.

However, none of these players worked out long-term in the pros. Cafego, the best player in Tennessee football history at the time spent four years in the league with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Washington Football team and Boston Yanks, appearing in 35 games with 20 starts as a back.

Boyd Clay also spent four years in the league as a tackle, all with the Cleveland Rams, totaling 34 games and five starts. Sam Bartholomew was the only other player who ever saw action, appearing in nine games with two starts at fullback in 1941 with the Philadelphia Eagles. World War II would interrupt all these players’ careers, which knocked this list down to here.

Home/Vols Football