Melvin Goins football career ended as quickly as it started

Melvin Goins' foray into college football lasted just a couple months, but now that it's out of his system, he's pretty sure basketball is his sport.

Goins, who was a senior on the Tennessee basketball team this season, decided to try his hand at football this spring with mixed results.

"I had a wonderful time with the football team over there, I like how they operate and it was a good experience for me," Goins told Go Vols Xtra. ". . . I had a couple good hits away from the ball, got to beat up a couple of receivers -- also got beat up a little bit.

"I caught an interception in one practice, tried to return it and cut up on the inside and got clobbered by two offensive linemen. That really woke me up and introduced me to football."

Goins was credited with a tackle and a defended pass during the Orange and White spring game, but that was the extent of his spring football highlights.

But it's not like Goins had allusions of what the transition from starting point guard to defensive secondary scrub was going to be like. From the beginning, Goins knew he had an uphill battle to learn the scheme and strategies and an even longer road to make the team. Goins hadn't played football since the eighth grade because his high school, Christian Life Center Academy in Humble, Texas, didn't encourage kids to play more than one sport.

Even if Goins had blossomed into a defensive marvel, he'd still need a waiver from the NCAA to allow him to play a year of football since he'd spent his four years of NCAA eligibility on basketball.

Tennessee coach Derek Dooley acknowledged Goins' effort in an interview with GVX247.com, but also said that he knew Goins making the team would be a challenge.

"I think Melvin, he did what he wanted to do," Dooley said. "He wanted to try it out and see, and that's what we'd talked about. That's why I wanted to see. That's why I wanted him to come out in this spring, because I knew what kind of investment it was going to take, and I knew the challenge it was going to be for him to be even a guy who's in the two-deep. That was why it was important for him to get out there in the spring, instead of working out all summer and coming in for two-a-days and getting disappointed."

If anything, Goins has been able to stay in shape for whatever he decides to pursue next. He's on pace to graduate this summer with a degree in sociology and playing basketball overseas is not out of the question.

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