Tennessee football: Vols five best seasons with third-year head coach
2. Robert Neyland
1928: 9-0-1 (6-0-1)
*Southern Conference member; No rankings available
Welcome to the season that brought Tennessee football into the national spotlight. In 1926, Robert Neyland took over and changed the future of the Vols forever. The next year, he shocked the world by winning the Southern Conference. This year, however, would be the time in which he garnered national recognition from different outlets.
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A young running back by the name of Gene McEver arrived to play for this team in 1928. He became the first player that Neyland coached into national prominence, and this year would be his chance to shine with an elite backfield led by Bobby Dodd. The weapons were elite, something that would become a staple of this program in the future.
UT dominate Maryville and Centre to open the season, and they beat key rivals in the Ole Miss Rebels, Alabama Crimson Tide and Sewanee Tigers. Most notably, he finally did what he was hired to do: Beat Vanderbilt. When he took over in 1926, UT was 2-19-3 against the Commodores and had lost five straight.
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Neyland lost to them in 1926. He tied them in 1927. but in 1928, he finally got them, winning 6-0, and he would only lose to them two more times the rest of his career. A tie with the Kentucky Wildcats cost this team a share of the Southern Conference title, but the Vols still finished the year undefeated and beat Vanderbilt. It was one of the greatest third year of any UT head coach.