College Football Bowls 2016: 10 NFL Draft prospects who can help their stock
By John Buhler
In Week 13, there was a night game in Nashville that mattered for one SEC rival more than the other. While the Tennessee Volunteers could have played for a trip to the Sugar Bowl, Butch Jones’ team didn’t understand the magnitude of the moment.
Derek Mason’s Vanderbilt Commodores knew just how important their game was with in-state rival Tennessee. Vanderbilt won and gets to go bowling at 6-6 because of that SEC rivalry game. The Commodores will play the North Carolina State Wolfpack in the Camping World Independence Bowl on December 26.
Not only is this the first bowl game of the Mason era for Vanderbilt, the Independence Bowl is a showcase for the Commodores’ stud redshirt junior inside linebacker Zach Cunningham. Cunningham is most certainly going in the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft.
According to CBS, he is the No. 2 inside linebacker behind Alabama’s Reuben Foster and is the No. 16 overall player on its draft board. We’ve seen Cunningham have huge games against Georgia, Auburn, Ole Miss and Tennessee this season.
If he plays like he can against North Carolina State, could we see Cunningham go in the top 10 even? Inside linebackers don’t grow on trees. He and Foster are about as blue-chip of inside linebacking prospects as they come, so look for Cunningham to take advantage of his first bowl game as a collegian.