Not to be disrespectful, but everything about Brady Hoke’s tenure with Tennessee football was bad. He was brought in after being fired at each of his previous two stops, as head coach of the Michigan Wolverines in 2014 and defensive coordinator of the Oregon Ducks in 2016 (when Mark Helfrich got fired as head coach).
He then joined the Vols staff as a defensive line coach and was part of a staff of a head coach that was fired for a second straight year. At that point, UT was 4-6 on the season, and Hoke was promoted to interim head coach to close out the season. It was disastrous enough on the field for Rocky Top.With a chance to go bowling still in play, this team lost to the LSU Tigers 30-10.
Okay, but that’s LSU, a top 25 team. What did they do the next week? Well, they lost to the Vanderbilt Commodores, at home, 42-24, to complete their first winless SEC season and their first eight-loss season in school history. So yes, Hoke is the one coach to lead UT through the T this past decade and not win a single game.
In between those two bad losses, though, Hoke took the initiative to kick Jauan Jennings off the team for accusing him and the staff of doing exactly what they did: lying. He made a long-term decision for the program as the interim head coach, which he had no right to do. That combined with losing puts him at the bottom of this list.