KNOXVILLE - LaTroy Lewis arrived at Tennessee in 2012 ready to begin his college football career as an outside linebacker.
More than four years later, he could play most of his final home game with the Volunteers as an undersized defensive tackle, a role he was forced into out of necessity against Kentucky last week.
It's perhaps fitting for Lewis, one of the four fifth-year players who will be honored during Tennessee's senior day festivities before Saturday's game against Missouri.
"It was difficult," Lewis said of his time as a 256-pound defensive tackle. "It was different. It was a lot different where I didn't have a lot of space on the edge. As a defensive end, most times it's almost like a linebacker where I always have at least one shoulder free. Inside it's double teams, it's all kind of combo blocks and things happen a lot faster."
Tennessee's fifth-year seniors probably feel like time has gone by slowly during their careers with the Vols.
Lewis, tight end Jason Croom, linebacker Kenny Bynum and defensive tackle Charles Folger, a former walk-on put on scholarship for this season, are the final remnants of Derek Dooley's failed tenure as Tennessee's head coach from 2010 to 2012.
Croom and Folger both said Wednesday the quartet still shares jokes and laughs about their former coach.
"If I had to say one thing about the previous coaching regime, I'd say, 'Has anybody seen Rommel?'" Folger said as he mimicked the hand binoculars Dooley made during his bizarre World War II reference at a 2010 press conference. "We joke about it all the time. We know how much better this program is with Butch Jones and his staff.
"We came in knowing what we were getting ourselves into, but we didn't know what was coming our way and we couldn't have asked for anything better. I have nothing but the utmost respect for the fifth-year guys who are still here. Guys like that make the world to me. We've been through so much. We're looking for Rommel every freaking day."
None of the fifth-year quartet have had the same impact as some of the other seniors who will be honored on Saturday, a group that includes team captains Josh Dobbs, Jalen Reeves-Maybin and Cameron Sutton.
But Croom battled through surgeries on his shoulder in 2012 and on his knee in 2015 - he missed the entire season - to catch 50 passes for 722 yards and six touchdowns in 35 games.
"The fact that I'm still able to be here and be a part of something so great," he said, "it just goes to show how great of a support system I have here. I was able to stay on top of stuff mentally when I wasn't able to be out there and do it phyiscally. I'm just happy where I am today, and it's helped me become a better person, going through all that adversity."
The highlight of Bynum's playing career was starting the 2015 TaxSlayer Bowl in his hometown of Jacksonville, Fla., but away from football - Bynum described himself as an "education-first kind of guy" - he has a bright future as he works toward earning his master's degree in sports management.
Bynum actually flipped on his commitment to Jones, then the head coach at Cincinnati, to sign with Dooley and the Vols.
"It's swept under the rug now," he said. "He did give me a hard time about it when he first got here, but it was nothing personal or nothing like that. I just felt at home here and he also felt it. That's why he came."
Tennessee's players lit up when Folger broke through the line for a tackle for loss against Tennessee Tech two games ago.
"Some guys will never get the opportunity to play," Folger said. "Some guys fight five, six seven days a week for the Vol Walk, to do it six times a year. They fight and scratch 351 days for five or six opportunities to walk in front of fans and walk down the street."
Lewis - who recently started Project Elevate, a non-profit organization designed to "mentor, culture, cultivate and educate urban youth" in Knoxville - may have played the best game of his career against Kentucky last week. He made seven tackles (1.5 for loss) and had a sack and a key fumble recovery.
"I think it's like anything else you do or anywhere you go in life," Lewis said. "It's not always just the place. It's the people, the people make the place. Even when you look at the Vol Walk and compare it to things that go on at other schools. It's really almost unreal.
"We have more people outside watching us walk to the stadium than a lot of people have in their stadium or more than their stadiums can hold. That's something we can't take for granted, and as a senior going into my last game, that's something I want to take my time and really take in."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.