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Tennessee football: Ranking all the coaches on Vols 2018 schedule

By Billy Williford

TUSCALOOSA, AL - SEPTEMBER 10: Jeremy Pruitt, defensive coordinator of the Alabama Crimson Tide, looks on from the sidelines against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers at Bryant-Denny Stadium on September 10, 2016 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
TUSCALOOSA, AL - SEPTEMBER 10: Jeremy Pruitt, defensive coordinator of the Alabama Crimson Tide, looks on from the sidelines against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers at Bryant-Denny Stadium on September 10, 2016 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
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CHARLOTTE, NC – NOVEMBER 11: Head coach Brad Lambert of the Charlotte 49ers looks on during the 49ers’ football game against the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders at Jerry Richardson Stadium on November 11, 2017, in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Mike Comer/Getty Images) /

No.4 Grade – D

There are a couple of reasons why a coach would receive a D rating in this post. And, before you look at the coaches on this page and find the correlation between the rating and their schools, know that is not how we came up with the rankings.

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Some places you just can’t win, like Vanderbilt but Derek Mason, for example, is not even close to as good as James Franklin was in Nashville.

Fair or not fair Jeremy Pruitt would get a D rating in this post. We aren’t saying he won’t be a great coach one day; it’s just we don’t know what we are going to give out of him. Maybe, a C rating would be fairer, but we decided on a D.

Brad Lambert

Charlotte 49ers

17-41 Overall Record

Yes, I know it’s Charlotte. It’s not like Brad Lambert has a lot of talent coming his way. In most years the second string of the Vols could handle Charlotte easy.

To be fair to Lambert, 2015 was the first season the 49ers were a part of the Conference USA. Before that they were NCAA Division I FCS independent.

Lambert’s most wins in a single season is five which came in 2013 and 2014. Lambert and the 49ers went 1-11 last season.

Dana Dimel

University of Texas El Paso

30-39 Overall Record

Dimel finds himself with a D rating because he has been out of the head coaching game since 2002. He started his coaching career at Wyoming where surprisingly he led the Cowboys to a 22-13 record.

He had an opportunity to coach at Houston where he led the Cougars to an 8-26 record in three seasons. In his second season with the team, Dimel went 0-11.

Randy Sanders

East Tennessee State University

0-0 Overall Record

The reason Sanders finds himself on the D list is that he is a brand new head coach. Noone knows what to expect from Sanders and ETSU.

However, since the 1989 season when he was the quarterback coach for the Tennessee Vols, Sanders has been an impressive assistant coach.

It will be interesting to see what Sanders can do with the Buccaneers program.

Derek Mason

Vanderbilt University

18-31 Overall Record

So, maybe a D rating is kind of harsh for Mason. After all, it is Vanderbilt and honestly, how good can you be at Vanderbilt?

However, four losing seasons in a row just isn’t going to cut it. Even though the first three seasons saw more wins each year, they were all losing records.

Following James Franklin doesn’t help Mason’s cause at all. At Vanderbilt, Franklin went 24-15 with back-to-back nine-win seasons.

Mason needs to at least reach the seven wins mark to get a grad of a C.

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