KNOXVILLE — Kyler Kerbyson and a handful of his Tennessee football teammates swapped their shoulder pads, workout gear and playbooks for suits, ties and business cards Wednesday night.
For the third year, the Volunteers held what they call the “VFL Career Development Night” as part of their Vol for Life program, which is run by former Tennessee offensive lineman Antone Davis.
The event provides upperclassmen the opportunity to meet with representatives, many of them former Tennessee players, from companies to network and build relationships. There were 22 companies at the event held this year at Smokey’s, the shiny new restaurant inside the Anderson Training Center.
For Kerbyson, the rising fifth-year senior offensive lineman with aspirations of becoming an athletic director after his football career is complete, it was his first time attending.
“It’s OK meeting new people,” Kerbyson said. “It’s not supposed to be a scary thing. A lot these guys are VFL guys that played here before and know exactly what I’m going through. That really helps. The fact that it’s a smaller number, too, makes it a lot less intimidating.
“They let us print out our own business cards. We can hand those out and take some as well. I’m really excited for this whole process. Hopefully I can get a job after football’s done.”
The VFL program, actually started by former Tennessee coach Derek Dooley, provides an off-the-field emphasis for Tennessee’s players in various ways, whether that be bringing in speakers to address certain real-life topics with the team, getting them involved in community service or networking opportunities like the one held Wednesday night.
Tennessee’s coaching staff, including head coach Butch Jones, were in attendance, and the players present included Kerbyson, Marcus Jackson, Austin Sanders, Danny O’Brien, Marquez North, Josh Smith, Von Pearson and some seniors from the 2014 team.
“The idea of having an event like this,” Davis explained, “started out as an opportunity to get former players who are now business owners and in a position to hire people to come back and mentor our players, give players an opportunity to sit down and talk to people, network, build relationships and, hopefully, get internships or even jobs out of it.”
Rising junior linebacker Kenny Bynum is currently doing an internship with Tennova Healthcare thanks to this event.
“I just enjoy it. It’s a great event,” said Jackson, a geology and environmental studies major planning to take the LSAT in June and eventually attend law school. “Antone and the guys put on a great list of people to come out here, and it’ll help us after football.”
“It’s really easy, because you know there are some opportunities out here, and you’ve got to make sure that you give your best impression.”
Originally the event was held in one of the skyboxes at Neyland Stadium and included only companies represented by former Tennessee players, but Davis said they’ve expanded it to include other companies as well.
“Everyone loved it,” he said. “It was a fantastic idea; it was a fantastic thing. We had nothing but VFLs in the room, and I think it’s impressive when you stop and look at all the guys who have left and been successful. That’s really the epitome of Vol for Life. How do you get guys out of here and let them be successful outside of football with the rest of their lives?
“That was really the primary example: Bring these guys back to let our players see there is something more to life other than football.”
That approach to the off-field welfare of Tennessee’s players is clearly important to both Jones and Davis, an All-America offensive tackle at Tennessee in the late 1980s.
“It’s not designed for recruiting,” Davis said, “but obviously we want to brag about the things that we’re doing. We want people to know, once you’re a Vol you’re a Vol for Life. And we really mean that.”
“I wasn’t this fortunate,” he added. “I think our players have a lot of resources, and this is an example of one of them. It’s extremely important to Coach Jones to do it. He could very well say, ‘We don’t have time and we don’t have the money,’ but he’s dedicated to it, and he’s committed to it. He’ll be here tonight. That’s huge to have it.
“I didn’t have it. It was sink or swim with me. I’m glad to be a part of it.”
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.