Reviewing Tennessee's Class of 2009: international man of mystery, JerQuari Schofield

Okay, so we've looked at the guy who didn't make it to campus (James Green) and the eight guys who made it but didn't play in their first season, so let's turn our attention to the players who did contribute.

Warning: First up is JerQuari Schofield, who I'm finding to be quite mysterious. Last week, I listed Schofield as not having played because that's what the official NCAA stats say. In finishing up some stuff for the Rocky Top Tennessee 2010 annual, though, I noticed that the official Tennessee stats show that Schofield actually played against Alabama, South Carolina, Memphis, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, and Virginia Tech. But . . . the official roster identifies Schofield as a redshirt freshman heading into 2010. Can you play six games and not burn a year of eligibility? Mysteriouser and mysteriouser.

Anyway, here's how Schofield presented to Tennessee prior to the 2009 season:

Yeah, man. Wide and grumpy, just how a lineman should be.

We'll credit Will with a bit of prescience (and overlook his confusion over numbers greater than 20), as he said way back on August 3, 2009 that Schofield "may end up with a real shot at playing time right away if he can impress this fall" despite the fact that he wasn't all that highly-touted. He may well have.

Or maybe not. Muddying things up further is the fact that Schofield is listed as having had two tackles against South Carolina, which is a bit odd for an offensive lineman. Yeah, offensive players sometimes end up with defensive stats due to turnovers and such, but Tennessee had one fumble and no interceptions against the Gamecocks, so unless Schofield tackled the same guy twice on the same play, played on special teams (!), or tackled Montario Hardesty, he must have played on defense.

Or maybe not.

Let's just admit it: really, we know nothing about this guy except that one document shows that he had two tackles in six games. Assuming that's true, I'm going to call Schofield an overachiever and be done with it. He had no other significant offers and managed only four jars and an RTT rating of last in his class and yet the man played half the season with an invisible cloak (which he apparently also wore when they clocked him for the 40). Points for creativity and wardrobe.