DeAngelo Willingham (RTT#20 ): reviewing the class of 2007

by Joel Hollingsworth on May 6, 2008 7:23 AM EDT in Tennessee Volunteer Football

There is no doubt that we (and everyone else) had Dennnis Rogan underrated in the Class of 2007. So what about DeAngelo Willingham? Here's his initial recruiting profile:

One of two junior college players that Tennessee landed in 2007 to fill out a secondary decimated by graduation (Antwan Stewart), the draft (Jonathan Wade), and the doghouse (Roshaun Fellows), DeAngelo Willingham figured to play a lot of games his first year on Rocky Top. That he did -- all of them:

Games Played	Fum. Ret.			Tackles					Passes Def.	Forced Fumbles
	No	Yds	TD	Ast	Solo	Asst Loss	Solo Loss	Loss Yds
14	1	4	0	13	25	0	1	2	4	2

Opponent	Score	Played In Game	Fum. Ret.			Tackles					Passes Def.	Forced Fumbles
			No	Yds	TD	Ast	Solo	Asst Loss	Solo Loss	Loss Yds
California	31-45	Yes	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Southern Miss.	39-19	Yes	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Florida	20-59	Yes	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
Arkansas St.	48-27	Yes	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0
Georgia	35-14	Yes	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
Mississippi St.	33-21	Yes	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Alabama	17-41	Yes	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
South Carolina	27-24	Yes	0	0	0	1	9	0	0	0	1	2
La.-Lafayette	59-7	Yes	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0
Arkansas	34-13	Yes	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	0	0
Vanderbilt	25-24	Yes	0	0	0	2	2	0	0	0	0	0
Kentucky	52-50	Yes	0	0	0	4	5	0	0	0	1	0
LSU	14-21	Yes	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
Wisconsin	21-17	Yes	1	4	0	0	2	0	1	2	0	0
			1	4	0	13	25	0	1	2	4	2

Dude had a good game against Steve Spurrier, and it's a good thing, too. Not only did his first quarter strip set up Eric Berry's 52-yard return (I have a feeling we'll be seeing this clip again soon) and Arian Foster's subsequent touchdown, but his second strip and recovery occurred in the all-important fourth quarter as the Gamecocks were threatening to score. If not for that forced turnover and Ryan Karl's interception on the next defensive series, that game probably would never have seen overtime and the Vols would not have found victory.

So what do you think? At RTT#20 for the Class of 2007, was DeAngelo Willingham ranked too high, too low, or just right?

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Just a little

I think he should've been a little higher, around 15, 16 or so, definitely above Kenny O'Neal, but given what we knew about him and our propensity towards semi-pessimism or at least realism, I think you got it about right. Even though he didn't really show up until S Carolina and was a little spotty from that game until Wisky, the ranking is pretty accurate even though his potential might warrant it being a little higher, but then hind sight is 20/20 isn't it?

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by XRayVol on May 6, 2008 11:48 AM EDT reply actions