Tennessee football’s 10 coaches who inherited biggest mess

Following Bowden Wyatt, Jim McDonald took over Tennessee football in 1963. McDonald was an assistant under Wyatt during his eight years. He was a graduate of the Ohio State Buckeyes, where he earned All-American honors in 1937, and was the second pick of the 1938 NFL Draft and played for two seasons with the Detroit Lions.

Honestly, the hire was a questionable one from the start. UT had struggled in its last five years under Wyatt, and McDonald had no proven track record. Why would anybody think that promoting a Wyatt protege would make things any better? After all, the Vols had slid into somewhat irrelevance as the Alabama Crimson Tide exploded under Bear Bryant.

Given that fact, though, McDonald inherited a mess. And we’ll never know if he would have been able to turn it around. All we know for sure is that he didn’t turn it around his only year as head coach on Rocky Top. In 1963, the Vols went 5-5, at one point losing four straight after their season-opening win.

Included in that streak was a close loss to the Auburn Tigers and a 35-0 loss to the No. 9 Alabama Crimson Tide. They did finish winning four of five with their only loss to the No. 3 Ole Miss Rebels, but  Wyatt did not remain head coach after that year. So as with Lane Kiffin, the situation then managed to get worse.