After two-year drought, Vols ready to make NFL Draft statement
For healthy college football programs, the NFL Draft is a celebration of success. In seven rounds stretched across four days, players become walking ad campaigns for their school as they begin their professional careers on national television. For Tennessee, that’s what made the last two years so hard. The Vols, a program that leads the SEC with 337 all-time draft picks, haven’t had a player hear his name called since 2014, when Ja’Wuan James went in the first round and Zach Fulton and Daniel McCullers were both grabbed in the sixth round. Painful, hard-to-watch shutouts followed in 2015 and 2016. “Those were tough years to go through,” Bob Welton, Tennessee’s director of player personnel, told GoVols247 on Wednesday. “It wasn’t a lot of fun being in the SEC and at Tennessee and draft day comes along and you end up going golfing or something, because you have nothing to watch for. “Those aren’t fun.” (Want the latest scoop on Tennessee football and basketball? Make sure you’re in the loop — take five seconds to sign up for our FREE Vols newsletter now!)…