Best Tennessee football players: Modern-era Mount Rushmore: From Peyton Manning to Eric Berry

Dating back to 1980, lots of talented players have gone through the Tennessee football program and now they’re part of our modern-era Mount Rushmore.

Although their peak era for team success was the Robert Neyland years, Tennessee football has seen much more top-level talent in the modern era. Dating back to 1980, UT has produced a few NFL Hall-of-Fame careers and had lots of its school records broken. In the process, the Vols have been able to win five SEC Championships and a national championship.

But who is most responsible for such success. As we get set to release that Mount. Rushmore, that’s a list we’ll have to narrow down. It’s important to note our criteria focus specifically on their college career, and it includes school records, a role in team success, leadership qualities and national recognition. Many Vols with amazing career accomplishments were left off.

Joey Kent has every Tennessee football receiving record, but he didn’t make the list. Neither did all-time leading rusher Travis Henry, all-time sacks leader Derek Barnett, all-time field goals leader Fuad Reveiz and all-time field goal percentage leader Alex Walls. Two-time All-Americans like Jimmy Colquitt and Dale Carter also just missed it. Again, it’s hard to get onto the Mt. Rushmore.

After all of these standout players, we were able to trim the list down to a clear-cut top six. However, there’s only room for four. One of the two who just missed it is two-time All-American John Henderson, one of only three Vols since 1980 to win a national award, as he won the Outland Trophy in 2000.

The other is Peerless Price. Being a No. 1 receiver for only one year hurt him, but he was the most productive player per touch in school history. Price was the MVP of both the SEC and national title game in 1998, he had a touchdown against every ranked team that year, and nine of his 12 touchdowns in 1998 came with the Vols either trailing or up by no more than one score.

So with none of those guys able to make the final cut, who does make this top four list? Let’s break it all down here. This is the modern-era Mt. Rushmore of Tennessee football players who began their college careers in 1980 or later.