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Top 10 Recruiting Classes That Have Been Busts In the Rivals Era

By Caleb Calhoun

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1. 2002 Tennessee Volunteers Recruiting Class

Rivals Class Rank: No. 2

This may not be a No. 1 class, but seeing as how 2002 is considered the first year of Tennessee football’s downfall along with Phil Fulmer, it is only fitting that this be the biggest bust of a class. And as a No. 2 class, it is the No. 1 bust because of the numbers of failures here.

Consider that Fulmer brought in five 5-stars, and none of them panned out. Mondre Dickerson hardly ever played and was accused of rape in his second year, Brandon Jeffries never saw the field, James Banks was converted to receiver and then kicked off the team by his sophomore year, Gerald Riggs, Jr. was never able to stay healthy, and J.T. Mapu played sparingly for two years before going on a Mormon mission, only to return out of shape and never the same.

So if you’re keeping score, that is 0-for-5 on the 5-star count in recruiting. But we’re not done there. Laron Harris, Heath Benedict, Aaron Kirkland, and Ruben Mayes all never played either despite being highly rated 4-stars. This class as a whole was a failure, but it was so loaded it still turned out some good players, including Jason Allen, Parys Haralson, Justin Harrell, Chris Hannon, James Wilhoit, Omar Gaither, and Gibril Wilson.

But this class was littered with busts and failures of the highest order, and for many of them it was indeed a character issue. We saw that with Banks and Dickerson and so many others, and this started the trend of what brought down Tennessee football.

***That is our lists of the Top 10 recruiting classes that turned out to be busts in the Rivals era. Did you disagree? Is there anybody you felt that was missed? Give us your thoughts below.

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