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Tennessee football: Vols 5 best seasons with second-year head coach

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) /
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Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images
Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images /

1. Bowden Wyatt – 1956

10-1 (6-0); No. 2 AP and Coaches

SEC Championship; Sugar Bowl berth

So with Bowden Wyatt, we have evened the scored. He and Bill Battle make for two coaches who had great second years but didn’t work out long term at No. 1 and No. 5. Robert Neyland and Doug Dickey make for two where it did work out at No. 4 and No. 2.

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That’s two and two, and their rankings average out to No. 3, where John Barnhill, whose second season told no story of his tenure, comes in. Talk about insane symmetry. That at least says, historically, that second years are random for Tennessee football.

Anyway, Wyatt clearly had the best second year on Rocky Top. He was one of Neyland’s top early proteges, and he was brought on in 1955 to succeed Harvey Robinson, who had struggled for two years with the Vols following Neyland.

In 1955, Wyatt went 6-3-1. But in 1956, behind the leadership of Johnny Majors, the Vols had one of their greatest seasons in school history. They enjoyed an undefeated regular season, going 10-0 to win the SEC.

In the process, they beat the Auburn Tigers and Alabama Crimson Tide while also scoring wins over the No. 2 ranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on the road and the No. 19 ranked Ole Miss Rebels. They were actually No. 1 at one point but finished the regular season No. 2.

Keith Jackson said in 1998 he thought this team should have been declared national champions. What was clear, though, is Majors should have won the Heisman that year. It went to Paul Hornung instead, who was a back for the 2-8 Notre Dame Fighting Irish. That showed insane bias against Rocky Top.

Next. Projecting the Vols' 2019 2-deep depth chart. dark

A 13-7 Sugar Bowl loss to the Baylor Bears soured the season a bit and ended title claims, and Wyatt did not work out long-term as the game passed him by. But this was an amazing season for Tennessee football, and at this point, Bowden truly looked like he was set to recreated the magic only Neyland had brought to Rocky Top at that point.

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