Janzen Jackson of the University of Tennessee football team poses for a photograph during media day at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville on Sunday.
Top freshman prospect Bryce Brown (cq) makes a breakaway run during the University of Tennessee football team’s first official practice of the season at Haslam Field in Knoxville, Tenn., Tuesday, August 4, 2009.LOOKING BACKRivals.com’s top 20 college football signees in 2009:RB Bryce Brown TennesseeWR Rueben Randle LSUOT D.J. Fluker AlabamaDT Sheldon Richardson MissouriQB Matt Barkley Southern CalRB Trent Richardson AlabamaQB Russell Shepard LSUDE Devon Kennard Southern CalLB Vontaze Burfict Arizona StateLB Jelani Jenkins FloridaCB Dre Kirkpatrick AlabamaLB Manti Te’o Notre DameATH Ray Ray Armstrong MiamiDE Alex Okafor TexasDT Jacobbi McDaniel Florida StateDE Donte Moss North CarolinaCB Janzen Jackson TennesseeQB Garrett Gilbert TexasATH Patrick Hall Southern CalS Craig Loston LSU
Bryce Brown and Janzen Jackson wasted a lot of their talents during shorter-than-expected stints with the University of Tennessee football team, but this is hardly the week for looking back.
The two most touted members of Lane Kiffin’s whimsical 2009 signing class are hoping one of the 32 NFL franchises can look beyond their wayward pasts in the draft, which starts Thursday night and concludes Saturday night. Jackson is being projected from the fifth to seventh round, while it is unlikely that Brown, Rivals.com’s No. 1 prep prospect nationally in ’09, will get drafted at all.
“There just isn’t a body of work there with Bryce Brown,” ESPN analyst Mel Kiper said. “You can’t look at what he did in high school, because this is not like the NBA, where high school tells you where you’re going to be. I know he has the perfect physical components to be a good running back in this league, but the body of work is not there.
“The bottom line is that if the production would have been there, then he could have been an early-round guy.”