Five people served as head coach in a game for Tennessee football during the 2010s decade. Here is how they all rank by performance with the Volunteers.
Note: This is part of a series of posts recapping the decade for Tennessee football, Tennessee basketball, Tennessee women’s basketball and other Tennessee Vols-related topics.
It’s safe to say Tennessee football did not have the best decade when it came to success. Lots of people are responsible for that, and it started due to two coaches from the previous decade letting things slide out of control.
The program got stale under Phillip Fulmer, and then Lane Kiffin sabotaged it by kicking off half the roster to get his guys in, bringing in a complete bust of a class, taking half his recruiting targets with him to the USC Trojans, where he bolted to after one year, and then putting the program under NCAA investigations all in just one year’s time.
However, there is plenty of blame for the coaches who led the program this decade as well. Many of them set back Tennessee football significantly and made some critical mistakes. Rocky Top is still recovering from them.
At the same time, though, there were some positive things each guy brought to the table, and we can’t ignore those. In this post, it’s time to analyze what each coach did for the Vols and rank them based on those contributions accordingly.
UT had three full-time head coaches in the 2010s, and they had two interim head coaches lead them during games. Anybody who led Rocky Top through the T at least once is going to be analyzed on this list.
What they accomplished on the field is going to be extremely relevant. However, their impact on the long-term success of the program and based on their off-field exploits also matter. Taking all of that into account, here is a ranking of all five coaches to lead Tennessee football in a game during the 2010s decade.