KNOXVILLE — You wouldn’t have blamed Curt Maggitt for taking his game to the next level after the season he had for Tennessee in 2014.
After playing primarily linebacker for the Volunteers for two seasons and sitting out the third, Maggitt played and produced the way many people thought he would in the way they thought he would when he signed with Tennessee in 2011.
Maggitt finished third in the SEC and led Tennessee with 11 sacks, proving himself as one of the league’s best pass-rushers.
As much as the NFL craves pass-rushing defensive ends, it would have made sense for the oft-injured Maggitt to capitalize on his All-SEC season.
He admitted on Tuesday that he considered it.
“To an extent,” Maggitt said ahead of Tennessee’s pro day on Wednesday. “I knew that Tennessee wasn’t exactly where we could be, and I think that this past season put us over the hump in the sense of it’s an standard and an expectation coming in with the freshmen.
“They know they’re not coming into a crappy organization in no sense. They know they’ve got to come in and compete, or they’ll be an outlier. Getting Tennessee back, that was my biggest goal, and that’s why I came into Tennessee.”
As was the case throughout his career, though, Maggitt’s next injury was just around the corner. He chipped a bone in his hip innocently in the second quarter against Oklahoma in the season’s second game. He didn’t play again and his recovery remains ongoing.
Recently, though, Maggitt came into the public spotlight different.
He’s somewhat of a prominent figure in part of a federal lawsuit against Tennessee that claims the university created a “hostile sexual environment” and violated federal laws in how it handled sexual assault cases, particularly those involving athletes.
In the lawsuit, former Tennessee wide receiver Drae Bowles alleges that Maggitt punched him in the face for helping the woman who claimed that A.J. Johnson, Maggitt’s close friend, raped her in November 2014.
Maggitt admitted to that assault in interviews with police, according to the lawsuit.
Through his attorney, Jeff Hagood, Maggitt denied punching Bowles when asked about it at the NFL combine a month ago.
Tennessee linebacker Curt Maggitt plays against Bowling Green in the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 5, 2015, in Nashville“If in fact, Mr. Bowles has sworn that my client, Curt Maggitt punched him at any time,” Hagood said in his statement, “that simply is a false statement.”
Maggitt declined to add anything to that statement on Tuesday and reiterated his support for Tennessee’s culture, as he did in Indianapolis in February.
“I’m good with what I said at the combine,” Maggitt said. “I stand by Tennessee’s culture 100 percent and the job Coach Jones has been doing so far.”
The former Vol did acknowledge that the Bowles allegation “came up a few times” in his interactions with NFL personnel during his process of preparing for next month’s draft.
“I’m not worried about that impacting my stock,” he added. “For people that know me, like I said before, (they) know my character and know what I stand for. That’s not a big worry to me at all.”
What will worry NFL teams about Maggitt is his inability to stay healthy.
Prior to his hip injury, shoulder and calf problems either slowed him down or caused him to miss games, and he sat out the entire 2013 season after tearing his ACL late in the 2012 season.
“I know my abilities and I’m confident in my abilities when I am healthy,” Maggitt said, “and I know what I can bring to a team and an organization.”
Maggitt said he’s treating this process like a job interview, and he’s confident he can take advantage of the opportunity to play at the next level whether he’s drafted or not.
“It’s good having played in a 4-3 and a 3-4 with Coach Sal (Sunseri), with Coach (Derek) Dooley and (Justin) Wilcox, John Jancek. In those defenses I understand outside ‘backer in a 3-4. I understand outside ‘backer from a 4-3 as well as defensive end.”
Maggitt considered trying to get a sixth year of eligibility and continue his career with the Vols, but conversations with his father, brother and other mentors led to him electing to take his shot now.
Now it’s up to Maggitt to market himself to the NFL and hope a team takes him.
It may not hurt him to show highlights of his 2014 season.
“The biggest thing I learned was I’m my own business, and the way I carry myself and the way I speak, I’m looking to get hired,” he said. “I think that was very good, and I think that Tennessee prepared me very well.”
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.