Tennessee Football Countdown: 11 More Mondays Until Gameday

Just 11 more Mondays until the Vols take on Georgia Tech at the brand new Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta!

The number 11 has a rich history at the University of Tennessee. From Daryl Dickey to Joey Kent to James Banks to Josh Dobbs — I have no shortage of players to spotlight today.

Joey Kent is probably the biggest name on this list. Kent was a four year player at Tennessee, starting for two of those years. He was able to put up back to back 1,000 yard seasons with Peyton Manning in 1995 and 1996. He was taken in the second round of the 1997 NFL Draft by the Oilers and appeared in a Super Bowl with the Tennessee Titans.

Then you have James Banks — who just oozed talent. He came to Tennessee as a quarterback, but made the swap to receiver and had a nice year in 2003. However, a series of incidents led to Banks being kicked off the team. He landed at Carson Newman after a long road back to football and actually declared for the NFL Draft in 2008.

You’ve also got Justin Hunter, who looked like he was going to absolutely shatter the record book as he emerged late during his freshman season with Tyler Bray. However, his career was derailed against Florida in the swamp when he tore up his knee in 2011. He came back strong in 2012, but I’m not sure he was ever really the same after that injury.

Of course, we can’t leave Josh Dobbs off of this list. Dobbs was the unrivaled leader of this team for the past three seasons. He was a bit frustrating at times as a passer, but his effort and toughness running the football won’t ever be questioned. In a lot of ways Dobbs led Tennessee out of the 5-7 darkness, getting Tennessee back to being respectable. Dobbs won three bowl games and will go down as one of the better quarterbacks to come through Knoxville. We wish him all the luck in Pittsburgh.