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

One of the first players to help Johnny Majors restore Tennessee football to national prominence in the 1980s, Reggie White is more known for his NFL career and his work as a spiritual leader. It makes sense. He had the career record for sacks for many years, was a Super Bowl champion with the Green Bay Packers and has his jersey retired by the Packers and Philadelphia Eagles.

However, his jersey number was also retired by the Vols in 2005, just less than a year after his untimely death in December of 2004. When he was on Rocky Top, White was a force to be reckoned with. By far the Vols’ most productive defensive player of the modern era, White put up numbers that are very rare for a defensive tackle to do, and he did play defensive tackle in college before moving outside to end in the NFL.

The Minister of Defense worked his way into the starting lineup as a freshman, and by the end of his sophomore season, he already had 146 total tackles. As a junior, he had a bit of a drop-off due to a nagging ankle injury. But then his senior year came, and White blossomed into a star. That year, he set a single-season school record for 15 sacks for a career record of 32 sacks.

Barnett later broke White’s sacks record with 33 sacks in just three years, from 2014 through 2016. However, White did it while playing defensive tackle, so he shouldered a greater role and much more attention than Barnett, and there’ also the injury his junior year and the fact he didn’t start half his freshman season.