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Tennessee football: Ranking 10 Vols coaches from other Power Five schools

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 15: A view of the outside of Neyland Stadium before a game between the Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers on September 15, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 15: A view of the outside of Neyland Stadium before a game between the Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers on September 15, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images) /
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Neyland Stadium
Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images /

So let’s first address the elephant in the room. Are the Army Black Knights really a Power Five program? Well, the SEC decided back in 2015 to count Army and the BYU Cougars as Power Five opponents in addition to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Those schools fulfill conference requirement for programs to face at least one Power Five non-conference opponent every year.

So yes, they count. Anyway, W.H. Britton was the first Tennessee football head coach to follow Robert Neyland’s first stint. He was a long-time assistant for Neyland, and the two were actually teammates at Army. So he was the obvious choice to replace Neyland when Neyland first retired.

The problem, though, was it was clearly a temporary replacement. Also, the Vols were already struggling with the transition to the SEC two years prior. Combine the two along with the distraction of the change itself, and you had a 4-5 season and 2-3 SEC season. Britton was successful 19 years earlier in one season with Hawaii, where he had a winning record.

However, it was never going to work out in Knoxville. Neyland returned to lead the program again in 1936, and Britton went back to being an assistant, helping the program achieve massive success. He just didn’t work out his one year as a head coach.

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