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Top 5 Schools Who Underachieve With Great Recruiting Classes

By Caleb Calhoun

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Nov 22, 2014; Knoxville, TN, USA; Tennessee Volunteers head coach Butch Jones leaves the field after his team lost to the Missouri Tigers during the second half at Neyland Stadium. Missouri won 29-21. Mandatory Credit: Jim Brown-USA TODAY Sports

1. Tennessee Volunteers

This is not even close. Like, if you could have a blowout on a list, this would be Georgia Tech-Cumberland and the 222-0 score that happened.

Since 2002, Tennessee has had five Top 5 recruiting classes: 2002, 2005, 2007, 2014, and 2015. They had two more Top 10 classes: 2009 and 2010. And 2003, 2004, 2006, 2011, and 2012 all brought in Top 25 classes.

The result? A football program with 0 conference championships, 0 Top 10 finishes, four straight losing seasons from 2010 to 2013 and six overall, only four Top 25 finishes, and by the way, four head coaches. This has been a massively underachieving program.

There are several factors, starting with the fact that Phil Fulmer, who was an ace recruiter, started to get hit with major busts. And if a player wasn’t a bust, he would get kicked off the team. The Fulmer Cup is named after Fulmer due to the players who consistently got in trouble and kicked out of the program under him during his final years.

At least half of the 2002, 2005, and 2007 classes were off of the roster three years later. Lane Kiffin’s one Top 10 recruiting class in 2009 had half of its players gone in the next year, and the same holds true for Derek Dooley’s one Top 10 recruiting class in 2010.

Fortunately, Butch Jones appears to be changing that, with the Vols having two straight Top 5 recruiting classes and finally putting some depth and experience in the roster.

But until Jones starts to win big and prove himself, Tennessee remains far and away the most underachieving college football program of the past 15 years, and if you look at the recruiting they have done in the Rivals era, that period of Tennessee football could be the most underachieving program of any period ever.

Next: Top 5 College Football Schools Who Win Without Great Recruiting Classes

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