National Signing Day is like the New Year’s of college football; it’s a day of optimism and reflection.

For fans and coaches, hope springs eternal as they take the time to look not only toward the future of their program, but also to reflect on the classes of the past.

For many UT fans, this day means looking forward with the 2013 class, which despite the fact that it isn’t as illustrious as the one’s in recent memory, the pieces are still there to provide the base for the Butch Jones-era. Yesterday’s new signees will be 2016 and 2017 stars, on teams billed by Marquez North’s receiving skills, Riley Ferguson or Joshua Dobbs’ arm and Jason Carr’s brute strength.

While thousands of words will be spent on these 20-plus men and the future they will build for this program, it’s important not to forget about the classes that brought the program to where it is now.

In this reflective mood that only signing day can create, I find my own thoughts wondering back to the 2009 class, which was a group of men that announced their intentions to come to UT around the same time I did. It’s an understatement to say that things have changed since 2009. To put it bluntly: everything on Rocky Top is different, plain and simple. Back then, Lane Kiffin was not only a name you could say without someone igniting a mattress in front of you, but also he was the future of this program. He was brash, young and his mouth could talk him in and out of a plastic bag (as well as an NCAA investigation). And the class Kiffin brought with him had UT fans foaming at the mouth.

In his lone class, Kiffin assembled a Top 10 class littered with five and four-star prospects. Headlined by Bryce Brown, Rivals’ No. 1 player in the country, and Janzen Jackson, the second-best defensive back in the class behind Dre Kirpatrick, who was a first-round pick for the Cincinnati Bengals last year. Making depth behind them were four-stars Jerod Askew, Eric Gordon, James Green, Darren Myles, Marlon Walls, David Oku and Nu’Keese Richardson, amongst others. With these 24 players, Kiffin promised to take the SEC back from Florida and Alabama and shock the world. Too bad they didn’t.

The story of this class is one littered with non-qualifiers, dismissals, arrests, busts and backups. Green never made it to school. Askew, Myles, Richardson, Jackson and Walls were kicked out due to behavior issues (I mean, Nu’Keese just wanted a hamburger … ). Oku transferred out and resurfaced this year at Arkansas State. And the crown jewel, Bryce Brown, he proved to be a serviceable backup for one season, before leaving around the same time as his coach. Of those 24 “program changers,” only Eric Gordon and Marsalis Teague started a game in four consecutive seasons. The only real changes that the class elicited were constant updates to the media guide rosters and police scanners.

I don’t mean to bring up the 2009 class solely for the purpose of continuing the four-year football depression that has marked my college career, but rather because National Signing Day is special because no matter what this day yields, no one can accurately measure what will happen out of this.Butch Jones may not have a Bryce Brown in this class, or a Janzen Jackson-like talent. But hopefully he doesn’t have any players with their temperaments.At the very least, there should be a Marsalis Teague or an Eric Gordon in there.

— Preston Peeden is a senior in history. He can be reached at [email protected]