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Tennessee Football Coaching Tree: Former Vols Assistants Who Are Now College Head Coaches

By Caleb Calhoun

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Jan 31, 2015; Knoxville, TN, USA; Former Tennessee Volunteers head football coach Phillip Fulmer during the game between the Tennessee Volunteers and Auburn Tigers at Thompson-Boling Arena. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 31, 2015; Knoxville, TN, USA; Former Tennessee Volunteers head football coach Phillip Fulmer during the game between the Tennessee Volunteers and Auburn Tigers at Thompson-Boling Arena. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports /

Tennessee football coaches are scattered throughout the sport. Here are former Vols assistants who have now become college head coaches elsewhere.

The imprint of the Tennessee Volunteers on the sport of college football still can still be traced back to Johnny Majors’s tenure in Knoxville.

In addition to a high level of NFL talent, Tennessee football has produced numerous NFL coaches. Within the past 10 years, guys like Tommy West, Jon Gruden, Doug Marronne, Al Saunders, Ron Zook, and Ed Orgeron led either a college or NFL team. All of them were assistants at Tennessee, and one of them, Gruden, even captured a Super Bowl in 2003.

Okay, to be fair, Orgeron was a head coach before he ever did anything in Knoxville, but you get the picture.

Tennessee Vols assistants have gone on to great success at all levels. Numerous other former Vols players, including Tee Martin and Jay Graham, have become rising coaches in the profession, while others have made a living out of being great career assistants, including Randy Sanders and John Chavis.

We could also name guys like Kippy Brown, Monte Kiffin, Dan Brooks, and Pat Washington among the former Tennessee assistants still coaching at a high level.

A program as prestigious as the Tennessee Vols is obviously bound to produce a lot of great coaches, and that is exactly what they have done.

Currently, there are six former Vols assistants who are serving as head coaches of college football programs. Four of them are in FBS, and three of them are coaching Power Five teams. This dates back to the Phillip Fulmer coaching tree.

Here is a countdown ranking of those six former Tennessee coaches.

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