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Tennessee football: How did Vols coaching candidates in 2017 fare in 2018?

By Caleb Calhoun

EUGENE, OR - OCTOBER 10: Head coach Mike Leach of the Washington State Cougars looks up at the video screen during the third quarter of the game against the Oregon Ducks at Autzen Stadium on October 10, 2015 in Eugene, Oregon. (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images)
EUGENE, OR - OCTOBER 10: Head coach Mike Leach of the Washington State Cougars looks up at the video screen during the third quarter of the game against the Oregon Ducks at Autzen Stadium on October 10, 2015 in Eugene, Oregon. (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Harry How/Getty Images
Photo by Harry How/Getty Images /

After going 9-3 in the SEC with his first team, Dan Mullen could have potentially been the top guy on this list. But Mike Leach earned that award, as he had the Washington State Cougars in the College Football Playoff race until his final game.

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    • Were it not for a snow-filled game in Washington that messed up his air raid offense, he would have gone 11-1 and almost certainly won the Pac-12 championship. Now, like a few other teams on this list, they enjoyed an easier schedule than they should have with the conference being down.

    But Washington State still had a Top 25 win, beat another team that was in the Top 25 when they played them, and again, was only held back from a third Top 25 win due to the snow. So they had a really good season, and it has Tennessee football fans scratching their heads.

    Remember that John Currie’s last-ditch Hail Mary to stay on board was an attempt to hire Mike Leach. It’s unclear if that ever would have come about, but he clearly came close to doing so before being removed on Friday and replaced by Phillip Fulmer as athletic director.

    At that point, Fulmer ditched the Leach hire and looked elsewhere. However, with as much or less talent than anybody else in the Pac-12 South, Leach was one game away from winning the conference title this year. We’ve never seen what he could do with real talent, and he would have had that on Rocky Top.

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    Tennessee football is likely in good hands with Jeremy Pruitt, but Leach would have been an amazing splash hire for Rocky Top. And being in the SEC would’ve been exciting for everybody. So it is a bit unfortunate that the Vols didn’t close a deal with him. Leach is the one guy on this list that UT appears to have turned down and may eventually regret. But time will tell.

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