All for Tennessee
Fansided

Tennessee football: 4 OC changes that didn’t work out for Vols

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 29: A general view of Neyland Stadium during the South Carolina Gamecocks game against the Tennessee Volunteers on October 29, 2011 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 29: A general view of Neyland Stadium during the South Carolina Gamecocks game against the Tennessee Volunteers on October 29, 2011 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 5
Next
Photo by Joel Auerbach/Getty Images
Photo by Joel Auerbach/Getty Images /

4. 2017: Larry Scott

To be fair to Larry Scott, this was as much on Butch Jones as anybody. There’s a reason Mike DeBord left for the Indiana Hoosiers right after Joshua Dobbs’s career ended. The clear disaster was on the horizon.

Nonetheless, the horrendous results of the 2017 season that got Tennessee football Jeremy Pruitt mean the offensive coordinator hire didn’t work out. Scott was set to replace DeBord and was hired despite people like Mark Helfrich being on the open market.

On paper, it seemed like a perfect fit. The guy had experience coaching the offense, he had already once served as a full-time coordinator in coaching special teams, and as interim coach of the Miami Hurricanes following the firing of Al Golden, he had head coaching experience. Bringing in Mike Canales to coach the quarterbacks seemed to make for the perfect combination.

And at the start, it looked like it was working out. A new crop of talent with Quinten Dormady at quarterback, John Kelly at running back and Marquez Callaway at wide receiver resulted in a thrilling shootout season-opening win over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. But it all went downhill after that.

Scott coached away the game against the Florida Gators two weeks later. Florida had 10 guys suspended, but UT had three turnovers, one inside the one-yard line and another that was a pick-six. That was the difference, and it all got worse, as they began a streak of 14 straight quarters without an offensive touchdown the next week in the second half against the UMASS Minutemen.

It became the worst offense and the worst season in the history of the Vols. And a year after averaging over 440 yards and 36 points a game, they only averaged under 20 points and under 300 yards a game. Such an atrocious step-back doesn’t happen just by losing a quarterback if the coaching is good.

Home/Vols Football