Tennessee football’s 10 coaches who inherited biggest mess

Although Zora G. Clevenger was the guy responsible for putting Tennessee football on a path to greatness, George Levene was the guy who saved it from falling off the face of the earth. He walked into a much worse situation. At the time, UT had suffered through four straight losing seasons, something no coach has ever inherited in the history of Rocky Top.

Only J.A. Pierce and Hubert Fisher had coached the Vols to winning seasons at that point. It was a major disappointment for the program as well because in the late 1890s, after returning from the lost years, they actually had some solid runs. But in 1904, they fell to 4-5. Then they went 3-5 in one year under Sax Crawford.

Things completely collapsed under James DePree, as the Vols went 3-5-1 in 1905 and then collapsed to 1-6-2 in 1906, another season that is in the running for worst year ever in UT history. So Levene was walking into the longest stretch of losing seasons in school history and coming directly off what was arguably the worst season in school history.

Simply put, he was taking over a disaster. Luckily for him, he rebuilt it pretty quickly, going 7-2-1 in 1907 and then 7-2 in 7-2-1 in 1908. However, his final year would see the program go 1-6-2 again, and he was replaced by Clevenger. Still, he walked into a bigger mess.