Tennessee football: Remembering four previous times Vols rehired a coach

This is where we go way back and look at Tennessee football’s history of rehiring head coaches. Robert Neyland had already left the Vols once and been rehired. But he left again in 1940 with World War II breaking out and returned in 1946.

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Unlike the first time he was rehired, which we’ll get to, Neyland had to replace a very successful tenure run by John Barnhill. Navigating through the war and the cancellation of the 1943 team, Barnhill’s teams went 8-2, 9-1-1, 7-1-1 and 8-1 from 1941 through 1945 with four Top 20 finishes, a Top 10 finish, a Sugar Bowl win and a Rose Bowl appearance.

Still, with his return, the Vols weren’t going to not let Neyland take back over. So Barnhill left for the Arkansas Razorbacks. And quite honestly, early on, it seemed like the program should’ve worked to keep Barnhill.

In 1946, Barnhill led the Hogs to the Southwest Conference Championship and a Cotton Bowl tie. Neyland went 9-2 with an SEC Championship, Top 10 finish and Orange Bowl appearance inheriting a team Barnhill built, but the next year, he stumbled to 5-5 while Barnhill took the Hogs to another bowl game. Consensus was Neyland may have lost it, and he amplified that by going 4-4-2 the next year.

But then he was able to rebuild the team in his image, and it showed over the next four years, which would be the most successful four-year period for Tennessee football until the mid-1990s. It started with a 7-2-1 record and Top 20 finish in 1949.

Then came back to back national championship seasons as the Vols went 11-1 in 1950 and 10-1 in 1951. They finished going 8-2-1 with a No. 8 final ranking in 1952, Neyland’s final year on Rocky Top. Neyland built his teams around some future legends during this time, most notably Doug Atkins and Hank Lauricella.

Meanwhile, Barnhill stumbled to 5-5 each year after those first two successful seasons in Fayetteville. As a result, it’s safe to say the Vols were right to rehire the General, who would always be able to win and adapt to the times. And they fell off hard enough after firing him that hindsight makes the move look better.