Ranking all 14 Tennessee Vols coaches by performance from 2018-2019
Another move John Currie actually deserves credit for, Chris Woodruff has dramatically turned around the Tennessee Vols men’s tennis program since being promoted to head coach. And in his second year, he put that on display.
Like Tony Vitello, second-year head coaches who see resounding success deserve more credit. And Woodruff saw a lot of it. The team went 22-8 and finished second in the SEC, fourth in the regular season, and made the NCAA Tournament Round of 16.
When Woodruff took over, UT had suffered through two straight losing seasons and three straight seasons without an NCAA Championships appearance. But his success in 2019 made for the best UT season since 2013. It was an encore after his incredible 21-9 season his first year on the job.
Related Story. Vols 10 most notable coaching hires of 2010s. light
Looking at that, the real success was what he did with his turnaround in 2017-2018. But maintaining it still matters, and he’s still just in his second season running the program. So we can’t avoid that.
A longtime assistant, Woodruff was part of those failures before he took over. But being able to turn things around like this has to count for something, and it’s why we have him all the way up at No. 2 in our rankings.