Tennessee’s all-time list of defensive linemen is as impressive as any SEC team’s all-time group, regardless of position.

Long before Derek Barnett delivered the best freshman season ever by a Vols defensive lineman in 2014, some of the best players at the position in school history toiled away on the practice field their entire freshman season, ineligible to see the field for the varsity.

But the collective accomplishments of the three-year players, and their pure size and athleticism, are stunning.

Also Considered: Albert Haynesworth, Shaun Ellis, Jonathan Brown.

5. G Bob Suffridge (1937-40): Tennessee’s only three-time All-American, General Robert Neyland once called Suffridge “the greatest lineman I ever saw.” Amazingly, the Vols went 30-0 during his college career and never lost a game, claiming national titles in ’38 and ’40 and winning SEC championships all three years. In ’39, he anchored a defense that didn’t allow a point. As a senior, he won the Knute Rockne Memorial Trophy as the nation’s most outstanding collegiate lineman. A two-way player in college, “Suff” was lighting-quick and earned All-Pro status as an NFL rookie in 1941 before the war cut his career short.

4. DT Reggie White (1980-83): Good his entire career, White morphed into a megastar as a Tennessee senior, making a team-record 15 sacks in addition to an astounding 100 tackles from the interior of the defensive line. The “Minister of Defense” remains the team’s all-time career sacks leader with 32. The SEC Player of the Year signed with the Memphis Showboats of the USFL, where he played for two seasons before the league collapsed. White then spent 15 NFL seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles, Green Bay Packers and Carolina Panthers before retiring as the league’s all-time sacks leader with 198. He made 13 Pro Bowls in his Hall of Fame career. White died of cardiac arrhythmia on Dec. 26, 2004, at just 43 years old.

3. DT John Henderson (1998-2001): Henderson had to sit out the team’s national championship season in ’98 due to the old partial qualifier rules. Playing alongside Albert Haynesworth on the interior of the Vols’ defensive line, Henderson became dominant by his junior season, earning first-team All-American honors in 2000 and 2001 as well as winning the Outland Trophy as the nation’s best interior lineman in ’00. At 6-foot-7 and 330 pounds, Henderson made 21 tackles for loss in his award-winning season. Jacksonville selected him ninth overall in 2002 and he made two Pro Bowls during a 10-year NFL career.

2. DL Steve DeLong (1961-64): A two-time All-American, DeLong also claimed an Outland Trophy as a senior in ’64 and won three Best Defensive Lineman Awards from the SEC coaches. He finished eighth on the Heisman Trophy ballet as a senior and earned MVP honors at the Senior Bowl. DeLong played for three coaches in three years at the varsity level, as the Volunteers teams he played for struggled near .500. The sixth overall pick in both the NFL and AFL draft in ’65, DeLong played for the San Diego Chargers and Chicago Bears. DeLong’s brother, Ken, was a two-time All-SEC selection for the Vols, and his son, Keith, became an All-America linebacker in ’88.

1. DE Doug Atkins (1949-52): He came to Tennessee as a basketball star, but the coach had offered him the opportunity to play football for General Robert Neyland as a perk. At 6-foot-8 and 280 pounds — a giant of legendary proportions in the late ’40s — Atkins was a notorious drinker who often ran into disciplinary issues off the football field and occasionally played at less than full effort on it. Pretty new to football when he arrived, Atkins — an SEC high jump champion — sometimes leaped over the head of offensive linemen to get to the quarterback, and occasionally threw double-teams into ball-carriers. Part of the ’51 national championship team, Atkins was an All-American in ’52 and was the first defensive lineman selected in the ’53 draft. A member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Atkins also had his jersey retired by Tennessee. He was voted “SEC Player of the Quarter-Century” for the years 1950 to 1975.