Tennessee football: 5 most underrated players in Tennessee Volunteers history

Al Wilson was a leader, tackling machine and champion for Tennessee football.

Former Vols linebacker Al Wilson is up for induction in the College Football Hall of Fame Class of 2021. Once he is inducted, hopefully, this year, there won’t be any reason to have him on a list like this. Though he’s a Hall of Very Good player for his NFL days with the Denver Broncos, people tend to overlook just how great Wilson was in the middle of the Tennessee defense in the late 1990s.

Wilson came to Knoxville in 1995, leaving the Tennessee campus as a two-time SEC Champion, a two-time First-Team All-SEC player, a consensus All-American and a national champion. As a team captain in 1998, Wilson helped guide the Vols to their most recent national title in program history. Keep in mind 1998 was Peyton Manning’s rookie season with the Indianapolis Colts.

Though the Florida Gators had been the Vols’ nemesis for much of the 1990s, Phillip Fulmer’s squads were able to get the best of Steve Spurrier’s teams in 1997 and 1998 to get to Atlanta. In 1997, the Vols edged out Takeo Spikes and the Auburn Tigers by a point. In 1998, the Vols defeated Jackie Sherril’s Mississippi State Bulldogs by 10 points en route to a national title.

Wilson may have missed playing in Super Bowls alongside John Elway in Denver by a season, but he was a five-time Pro Bowler in his eight-year NFL career. He is one of those great players where he’s beloved by the two great teams he played for: Tennessee and the Broncos. The fact Wilson still hasn’t been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame is embarrassing. He was great.