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Ranking all 6 Tennessee football head coaches who played for Vols

By Caleb Calhoun

ATHENS, GA - OCTOBER 9: Head coach Phillip Fulmer of the Tennessee Volunteers looks on during warmups before the game against the Georgia Bulldogs at Sanford Stadium on October 9, 2004 in Athens, Georgia. Tennessee won 19-14. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
ATHENS, GA - OCTOBER 9: Head coach Phillip Fulmer of the Tennessee Volunteers looks on during warmups before the game against the Georgia Bulldogs at Sanford Stadium on October 9, 2004 in Athens, Georgia. Tennessee won 19-14. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images) /
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Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images
Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images /

After Harvey Robinson didn’t work out, Tennessee football turned to another former Robert Neyland protege in Bowden Wyatt. In the 1930s, Wyatt helped Neyland turn the Vols into a national program, and he led them on the 1938 11-0 team, the first one to win a national championship on Rocky Top.

But Wyatt returned to UT from Arkansas, where he had a successful turnaround team that went 8-3 and won the Southwest in 1954. Before that, he had spent six years with Wyoming, winning two conference titles and going 10-0 in 1950.

So Wyatt was the best choice to restore the program, and in the early going he did just that. He went 6-3-1 in 1955, and in 1956 he went 10-0 in the regular season, capturing the SEC Championship and what many felt should’ve been a national title. That was a harder sell after the Vols lost the Sugar Bowl, but the season was still a thrill.

After a 8-3 season and Gator Bowl win the next year, though, things began to slide downhill. Wyatt stayed stuck in the single wing formation, and as the sport moved on, he and the Vols fell behind. He still remains above John Barnhill for that title, but only a 6-2-2 season in 1960 kept his final five seasons above .500.

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