Ranking Tennessee football’s 10 offensive systems in history

This is our ranking of all Tennessee football Volunteers offensive formations by success.

As the sport has changed over time, Tennessee football has gone through many different offensive evolutions. In some cases, the Vols were the last to the party for a fashionable system, but in other cases, they were actually ahead of the curve.

We can trace schemes on Rocky Top back to 1911, when Zora G. Clevenger took over as head coach and actually tied his name to an offensive formation. He continued what was the early forms of the program but kept it up with the times.

Including that period, there have been 10 different offensive systems Tennessee football has run. They have won national titles in three of those systems and conference titles in five of those systems. There were also undefeated seasons in three of those systems.

But which systems were the most successful? In this post, that’s exactly what we’re going to break down, ranking each one based on how successful it was. Our criteria is pretty simple: We’ll judge each system by wins and championships.

The length of time the system lasted also matters. If a system was successful, it would have stood the test of time, and some of the ones we are naming lasted through multiple generations, although in some cases they may have lasted too long.

Most of the time, head coaches were synonymous with one system. However, a few were willing to change it up based on the changing times or the hire of a new coordinator. In some cases, it worked out, but in others, it actually ended up being their undoing.

Anyway, let’s go ahead and look back at all the methods of scoring UT has been able to implement through the years. This is our ranking of the 10 offensive systems Tennessee football has run dating back to the turn of the 20th century.