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

The second year defines many head coaches. How does that apply to Tennessee football under Jeremy Pruitt? Here are the five worst such Volunteers seasons.

As Tennessee football enters its second season under head coach Jeremy Pruitt, we’ve already discussed the nature of how defining a second-year can be. Obviously, the best seasons in Vols’ history under second-year head coaches told different stories.

Some cashed in on an already thriving program, and some took the necessary leap that would eventually define their career on Rocky Top. It was a bit more random than what you might see from other SEC schools.

But if a highly successful second year defines a head coach’s future, does a bad second year do the same? And will that be the case for Tennessee football under Pruitt heading into the 2019 season? We’ll have to wait and see.

Remember, Dabo Swinney’s second full season as head coach of the Clemson Tigers saw him stumble from 9-5 to 6-7 and on the hot seat. He now may be the greatest coach in the sport. That is often the exception, though, and not the rule.

What about the history of the Vols, however? Is it as random on whether or not a failed second season defines a coach’s career as a successful season was? How have coaches with bad second years panned out? Well, in this post, we’re going to break that down.

Our first criteria is pretty straightforward, as we’ll judge a season by record. However, one unique thing we’ll do for a tiebreaker is compare it to how they did the previous year. After all, it can often be an alarming sign if a coach took a step back in a season.

A spoiler alert, though, is that bowl games and final rankings won’t matter. And championships obviously won’t be a factor in this either. These years in Vols history had none of those things. So let’s go ahead and break them down. This is our ranking of the five worst Tennessee football seasons under a second-year head coach.