Episode 174: Once and future NFL Drafts

GoVols247’s Wes Rucker, Patrick Brown and Ryan Callahan went into the Fort Rucker Sun Room — the Fort Rucker Studio somehow is still being renovated — to discuss the reasons no Tennessee players were selected in the 2019 NFL Draft and whether the 2020 NFL Draft will be any different.If you want to understand the magnitude of the rebuilding project inherited by Jeremy Pruitt and his staff, understand this: There are 14 teams in the SEC, and 13 of them had at least two players selected in last week’s draft. Tennessee had zero.Eight teams in college football’s deepest conference had at least five players drafted last week. And … yep, Tennessee had zero.On one hand, Tennessee beating two ranked teams despite not having a single draft pick on its roster makes last season seem more impressive. On the other hand, Tennessee hasn’t had a player selected in three of the past five NFL Drafts. How is that possible at one of the winningest programs in college football history? How is that possible at a place that had at least one player selected in 51 consecutive drafts?Will 2020 be any different? Probably so. But how much different?Other odds and ends from the previous week — including young lineman Eric Crosby going on a medical scholarship and ending his Tennessee football career — also are discussed in this episode, and there’s plenty of recruiting for Callahan to discussing following the trip he and Grant Ramey took to last weekend’s The Opening regional in Charlotte.