Ranking Tennessee football coaches who played for rival schools

Alma mater: Sewanee Tigers

Yes, the Sewanee Tigers were once a rivalry with Tennessee football. When Lex Stone took over the Vols in 1910, it was a one-sided rivalry, but not in the way you would think. Sewanee and the Vanderbilt Commodores were the two schools playing for state supremacy and the football powerhouses in the South. The Vols were an afterthought.

However, Sewanee was UT’s first opponent ever, way back in 1891, and the two played twice in 1892. Stone played tackle for Sewanee in 1906 and 1907, earning All-Southern honors in 1907. His teams went 8-1 both years, only losing to Vanderbilt each time. When he arrived on Rocky Top in 1910, the Vols and Tigers hadn’t played since that 1906 season.

At the time, Sewanee had won eight of the nine meetings ever between the two schools. They didn’t play each other when Stone was coaching the Vols, and Stone wasn’t much help to the Vols either. He inherited a team that was 1-6-2 the year before but had won seven games each of the previous two years before that.

All Stone did was go 3-5-1, losing to Vanderbilt again in the process. The silver lining was he left after a year, making room for Zora G. Clevenger, who eventually led UT to its first conference championship and win over Vanderbilt, all in 1914. Oh, and UT would win its second game against Sewanee that year, never losing again in the series up until the program discontinued football.