Wiedmer: One-time Vols QB Riley Ferguson excited about NFL draft

Riley Ferguson tries to evade Corey Vereen while looking for a receiver during Tennessee's Orange and White spring game in April 2014. Ferguson did not win the starting job and left the Vols that year, ending up out of football before playing a year at a community college and his final two seasons at Memphis. He hopes to be drafted by an NFL team this week.
Riley Ferguson tries to evade Corey Vereen while looking for a receiver during Tennessee's Orange and White spring game in April 2014. Ferguson did not win the starting job and left the Vols that year, ending up out of football before playing a year at a community college and his final two seasons at Memphis. He hopes to be drafted by an NFL team this week.

As Butch Jones prepared for his second season as football coach at the University of Tennessee in spring 2014, he chose Justin Worley to be his starting quarterback. Worley's backups were redshirt sophomore Nathan Peterman, sophomore Josh Dobbs and redshirt freshman Riley Ferguson.

Peterman is preparing for his second year with the NFL's Buffalo Bills after transferring to the University of Pittsburgh after that 2014 season. Dobbs, who would eventually star for the Vols, is on the Pittsburgh Steelers' roster.

Then there's Ferguson, who left school that spring without so much as notifying Jones, then headed home to Charlotte, N.C., to, among other things, powder-coat fencing for a year.

Yet by the close of this year's NFL draft, which starts Thursday and finishes Saturday, Ferguson - who threw for more than 7,000 yards and 68 touchdowns the past two seasons at Memphis - should become the third Volunteers backup quarterback from spring 2014 to make his childhood dreams come true.

"I've been dreaming of this my whole life," he said from his Charlotte home Tuesday afternoon. "I'm excited. There have definitely been some nights lately when it's been hard to sleep."

No one would willingly dream up the road Ferguson traveled. Upon leaving the Vols, he believed his phone would ring with numerous programs hoping to convince him to transfer with his laser arm and cunning field presence.

Instead, even woebegone UNC-Charlotte replied, "Thanks, but no thanks."

At that moment, his confidence shaken, his options seemingly nil, his work days consisting of rolling fence gates into a 550-degree baking oven, Ferguson admitted, "I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever play again. I was really close to (quitting). Especially after I went back home and was just working."

Just working. That's what happens to most of us. That's what Riley's father, Don, didn't want to happen to his athletically gifted son.

"I told him, 'You've got the rest of your life to work a job, just like we all do,'" he recalled. "But you have a very small window to play football."

Thankfully for young Ferguson, an assistant coach at North Carolina contacted Coffeyville (Kan.) Community College offensive coordinator Angelo Mirando, who had previously worked at Mississippi State and Florida. In his one season at Coffeyville, Ferguson threw for 2,942 yards and 35 touchdowns.

Interviewed by the Memphis Commercial Appeal the following summer, Mirando said: "(Riley's) the best pure thrower I've ever been around. He's unbelievably accurate. And his competitive spirit is off the charts. People just naturally gravitate to him. He just came in here, and he meant business, and he wasn't going to fool around, and he was going to win."

Though such grand work didn't immediately cause most major college recruiters to gravitate to Coffeyville, Ferguson bonded immediately with Memphis assistant Mike Norvell, who became the head coach when Justin Fuente left for Virginia Tech before Ferguson arrived on campus.

"Riley loved Norvell from the beginning," Don Ferguson said. "He was ready to sign the first day he met him."

It was a coach-player marriage made in heaven from the beginning. With Ferguson their starting quarterback, the Tigers went 8-5 in 2016, then 10-3 this past season, losing to undefeated Central Florida 62-55 in two overtimes in the American Athletic Conference title game before falling 21-20 to Iowa State in the Liberty Bowl. Memphis wound up No. 25 in The Associated Press poll.

"If he's not a legit NFL quarterback, I don't know if I'll see one," Norvell told bigblueview.com, which covers the New York Giants.

The quarterback thought highly of his two seasons in the Bluff City.

"Just a great experience," he said. "Memphis means everything to me. It's become my second home. It reminds me a little of Charlotte, and we had two really good seasons there. I owe so much to Coach Novell and my teammates."

He also said he owes a lot to his high school sweetheart, Indriya Harvard, who has been with Fegruson every step, following him to both Coffeyville and Memphis.

"She's stuck by my side the whole way," he said. "She's been here for all of it, the good and the bad."

But the best may be yet to come. Ferguson believes he has a good chance to be drafted anywhere from the third to the fifth round. For comparison's sake, Dobbs went to the Steelers in the fourth, Peterman to the Bills in the fifth.

To date, Ferguson has had conversations with the Steelers, Houston Texans, Kansas City Chiefs and his hometown Carolina Panthers. He also worked out for the Panthers and met with their coaching staff, but all of the NFL got a glimpse of him during the scouting combine this past winter in Indianapolis.

"I heard a lot of positive feedback at the combine," Riley said. "They were impressed by my ability to extend plays, my arm strength, my accuracy."

There may also be some interest from the Atlanta Falcons, though Don Ferguson - like his son, a huge Panthers fan - joked some family members have said, "I don't know if I could wear a Falcons jersey."

Riley Ferguson will gladly wear any NFL jersey. And he wouldn't change a thing regarding his long and winding road to this moment.

"I've just grow so much mentally, spiritually and physically," he said. "It's all been worth it."

Especially if he becomes the third UT backup quarterback from spring 2014 to become an NFL draft pick.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.

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