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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 Joe Robbins/Getty Images
Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images /

After Vols fans loudly rejected the attempted Greg Schiano hire, they subtly rejected this one. John Currie went to Dave Doeren after Mike Gundy and Jeff Brohm fell through, and once again, he went for a less proven candidate than other options who were better and as available.

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Doeren was coming off his first season of more than seven wins with the N.C. State Wolfpack in five years at the time, going 9-4. So yes, there was plenty of reason to be angry about this attempted hire.

However, this year, to his credit, Doeren followed up on that success. He went 9-3 this year, his best regular season since he’s been there. That is a better record than what Jeremy Pruitt did with Tennessee football, but once again, this is close.

You can’t ignore four more wins, but you have to acknowledge Doeren’s easy schedule. He beat three FBS teams with a winning record all year, one of them a Group of Five opponent, and he has no Top 25 wins. So we easily could have had Doeren all the way down at No. 7 or No. 8 on this list because, quite frankly, he should have gone 9-3 with this schedule. But since he did it, he deserves some credit.

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