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Knoxville: Ayers represents UT well as second-chance success

By: Darren Epps

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Robert Ayers

Robert Ayers is a reason why troubled college athletes deserve second chances. He’s a reason why you can’t just start booting football players off teams at the first hint of immaturity.

Sure, there will always be players who can’t be helped. But more often, you’ll find examples of players who simply grew up between their first year on campus and their last. And one example stood proudly at the Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover, Ala., in a white sport coat — an unlikely representative for the University of Tennessee at SEC Media Days last Thursday.

“The coaches stuck with me,” Ayers said, a smile rarely leaving his face.

To understand why he would express so much joy at attending a media event, you must first understand his past.

Three years ago, some Volunteers fans wanted Ayers gone. I still remember the e-mails. He didn’t act any worse than the other troubled UT players during that dreadful offseason of arrests — he eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault following a brawl — but his timing was awful.

Police arrested Ayers two days after assault charges were brought against Brent Schaeffer and Bret Smith. Phillip Fulmer called a news conference just hours after Ayers turned himself in to police, and some beat reporters say they’ve still never seen Fulmer as upset as he was then. The players were humiliating him. Ayers was the latest.

Maybe, some fans said, Fulmer should just cleanse himself of all those problem kids and send a message.

But Fulmer did not abandon Ayers, even though, honestly, he didn’t have many reasons to believe in him.

Ayers was also disappointing on the field. He was one of the nation’s top defensive players coming out of Marlboro County High School in Clio, S.C. — a linebacker who ran the 100-meter sprints in track. He was naturally better than everyone else. Ayers figured he would naturally be better than everyone else at UT, too. And he was wrong.

“He was really an immature guy as a freshman and sophomore, an underachieving guy,” Fulmer said.

Ayers was dangerously close to achieving the status of a bust. He just wasn’t working hard. He fought the position change from linebacker to defensive end. He didn’t care much about school.

We want our young football players to care and work hard and give all their effort to the team, but some kids want to act like kids. And so Fulmer called this kid into his office last season.

“Look, son,” Fulmer began. No conversation with the head football coach that starts with “Look, son” is going to be real pleasant.

Fulmer told Ayers, then a junior, that he needed to grow up. Ayers was wasting his career. Here’s this wildly talented player who couldn’t even crack the starting lineup. Fulmer called him out.

“I was just like, ‘Coach, I’m tired of doing the wrong thing. I’m going to straighten up,’” Ayers said. “From there, I just took off. I listened to my coaches, followed the lead and the positive role model set by older guys. I just tried to follow in their footsteps and surround myself with good people like Inky Johnson and Jerod Mayo and just stay positive and be a leader for the team. It paid off a lot by listening to my coaches.”

You really can’t say enough about Johnson, Ayers’ roommate. A frightening injury took away Johnson’s ability to play football. But he did not become bitter. He did not abandon the team. Ayers could not look at his roommate and give a half-hearted effort in practice. The change was evident.

Last year, Ayers was the only defensive lineman consistently getting pressure on the quarterback. He led the Vols in tackles for loss and sacks even though he didn’t start a game. Ayers enters his senior season as a leader — he represented Tennessee well in front the media last week — and a dynamic player whom every opposing quarterback will watch on tape.

And guess what? He’s on pace to graduate.

“I don’t think anybody in Clio, South Carolina, would have believed that back then, because he wasn’t serious about his schoolwork,” Fulmer said. “Robert is a great story.”

Added running back Arian Foster: “It’s been a 180 with Robert.”

This time, his timing is pretty good.

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