Jeff Cottam

KNOXVILLE -- Twenty-four true freshmen arrived on the Tennessee campus in 2005 as one of the nation's top football recruiting classes.

Eleven of them remain five seasons later, and eight of them are healthy enough to play in Saturday's home finale against Vanderbilt.

The 24 enrolled at UT with dreams of starting on teams that competed for Southeastern Conference and national championships.

A pretty picture was painted to those players throughout the recruiting process.

Five years later, their best-case scenario is leaving UT as Pablo Picasso paintings -- convoluted works that didn't make sense at the time but were eventually appreciated for their lasting legacies.

"It ain't been pretty, but it's been real," said weakside linebacker Rico McCoy, arguably the most decorated of the bunch.

Those two dozen Volunteers signed to play for longtime UT coaches Phillip Fulmer and John Chavis, but their last season came under the direction of Lane and Monte Kiffin.

They came to handcuff the SEC, but they watched helplessly as teammates left the program in handcuffs.

They came to tear up record books, but they tore knee ligaments -- multiple times, in some cases.

They came to win, but their 36-24 record is the program's least successful stretch since a 27-28-1 mark from 1976 to '80.

They came to do a lot of things that didn't or won't happen.

"It's been a crazy ride since we came in here," tight end Jeff Cottam said. "We came in here as the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation ... and I figured we'd be coming in here competing for national championships every year.

"Obviously, it's been a little bit different than we expected."

The offensive players have had four coordinators in five years, and some have seen just as many position coach changes.

"We've been through a lot, but that's something you've always got to do in life -- adapt to your environment," Cottam said. "You've got to change as your surroundings change."

UT's defenders only had one change, but that complete overhaul after last season only enhanced their late-career shock and sadness.

"It's still hard to think about, because we love those guys, and they're great coaches who gave us everything they had," defensive lineman Wes Brown said of the previous staff. "But things like that happen in life, and you can't control it, so you just move on and keep fighting.

"You do what you have to do."

Strong bonds have formed within a class comprised of players from various backgrounds. Some play offense, and some play defense. Some grew up in stable, two-parent, suburban households, and some were raised by single mothers in working-class neighborhoods. Some are Republicans, and some lean to the political left. Some listen to country music, hunt and fish in the offseason and watch NASCAR, and some prefer listening to hip-hop while endlessly arguing whether Kobe Bryant or LeBron James is the world's best basketball player.

They've grabbed each other's necks on the practice field and in the locker room, and they've cried on each other's shoulders during Fulmer's final days with the program.

"We're a family," Brown said. "These are my brothers, and I love them. I've got their backs, and they've got mine."

Five years of SEC football has taken its toll on many of them.

Tailback Montario Hardesty didn't emerge as a star until he'd recovered from a long list of leg injuries -- ranging from torn ACLs to high ankle sprains to shin stress fractures.

Brown has developed arthritis in his surgically repaired knees.

Center Josh McNeil didn't leave the field until his knees got so damaged that simple scans couldn't differentiate between old and new problems.

Guard Vladimir Richard played through knee and Achilles' tendon problems until trainers took him off the field.

McCoy has two undisclosed knee problems, but he wouldn't let trainers examine them during last week's loss at Ole Miss because he knew they'd take him out of the lineup.

Cornerback Marsalous Johnson, who overcame knee and shoulder injuries earlier in his career, is rehabbing recent thumb surgery in hopes of returning for next week's regular-season finale at Kentucky.

Rogers, who tore his ACL this summer, has applied to the NCAA for a sixth season of eligibility. In case his appeal gets denied, he recently returned to limited work on the practice field in hopes of playing in UT's possible bowl game.

Quarterback Jonathan Crompton has dealt with shoulder surgery and minor leg injuries, but his biggest hurdle was overcoming historical ineptitude to enjoy a solid senior season.

And then there are the Sullins twins, Cody and Cory, former walk-ons who weren't counted in the initial 24-man class but earned scholarships and starting positions at center and left guard.

"They say football prepares guys for life, life's struggles and life's hardships," McCoy said. "With this class, I think me and these guys should be prepared for life's lessons to come. We've been high and we've been low. We've had a 5-7 season, and we've had a 10-4 season. We've seen the best, we've seen the lows. We've seen a coach get fired, which is like losing someone close to you. We've been in big bowl games, and we've gone home a couple of times without bowl games.

"It shows the roller coaster life can be sometimes."

Those issues weren't lost on Lane Kiffin.

"Obviously, all the older guys didn't buy in when we first got here, but we really appreciate the ones that did," Kiffin said. "This is the last time to play in Neyland Stadium (for) so many guys who have been so important to us this year. This will be their last game here, and so it would be great to win it for them.

"We're going to miss them, and we'll always remember them as our first year together, starting this foundation."

A 2-4 start squashed the seniors' dream scenario of leaving with title rings, but that didn't stop them from potentially salvaging their final season. Three wins in the past four games -- including blowouts over Georgia and South Carolina -- have put the seniors in prime position to finish strong, play in a decent bowl game and leave the program on an upswing.

"We might not accomplish everything we set out to accomplish this year, but we've never stopped getting after it and working hard," Hardesty said earlier this season. "Hopefully we've set an example for these young guys to follow on and off the field, and hopefully we can come back in the future and celebrate their championships."

McCoy said he'd join Hardesty and others in relishing UT's return to championship-caliber football.

"Tennessee is a part of me now," McCoy said. "If all us older guys, if we look back in a few years, and Tennessee's back where Tennessee's supposed to be -- right at the top -- we can look back and remember that we were a part of it."

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