Coaches Tennessee football passed on seeing wild success in 2021
It’s hard to look at the landscape of college football this year and not lament the failures Tennessee football had throughout multiple coaching searches the past decade-plus. At least four coaches the Vols could have had are undefeated right now. Three others are high-profile names.
Standing out among all them right now is Brian Kelly. On Saturday, Kelly became the all-time winningest coach with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. A blowout win over the Wisconsin Badgers has his team at 4-0 and in the running to get back to the College Football Playoff.
A year before Notre Dame hired Kelly, he was in the running for Tennessee football’s opening. The Vols had just fired Phillip Fulmer, and Kelly just led the Cincinnati Bearcats to the Big East Championship. They went with Lane Kiffin instead.
Detractors will point out that Kelly has never won a national title at Notre Dame while entering his 12th season there. However, they ignore the academic requirements of the players at that school compared to players elsewhere. This day in age, Kelly’s success at Notre Dame is remarkable, and the Vols let him go.
Of course, when Kelly was hired by Notre Dame, he had just completed an undefeated regular season. Kiffin, meanwhile, bolted the Vols for the USC Trojans, leaving them in terrible shape when Derek Dooley took over. Don’t worry, the Vols got their Cincinnati Big East champion coach in the form of Butch Jones three years later.
Speaking of Kiffin, he’s now 3-0 with the Ole Miss Rebels and may have the best offense in the nation. Tennessee football failed on two fronts with him. For starters, the Vols had nothing in their initial contract with him to disincentivize him from leaving. In 2017, they had a chance to rehire him from the Florida Atlantic Owls. Neither John Currie or Phillip Fulmer made a move, though.
Kiffin and Kelly are connected by that first Tennessee football coaching search post-Phillip Fulmer, but then there’s another guy Fulmer himself passed on. The 2017 coaching search came down Jeremy Pruitt, Clemson Tigers defensive coordinator Brent Venables and then Georgia Bulldogs defensive coordinator Mel Tucker, according to a report then from Bruce Feldman of SI.
Fulmer went with Pruitt. Tucker went to the Colorado Buffaloes a year later and then went to the Michigan State Spartans. He is currently 4-0 at Michigan State after an overtime win over the Nebraska Cornhuskers. This MSU team also has two impressive blowout road wins at the Northwestern Wildcats and at the Miami Hurricanes.
Tucker and Kelly easily could have been hired by UT. Kiffin is a different story, but he’s still a guy the Vols could have gotten. Then there’s this other guy who was once an up and coming coach as a member of Dooley’s staff in 2012, Sam Pittman.
Nobody would debate that Pittman has done the best job of any coach through four games this year. He inherited an Arkansas Razorbacks team that had lost 20 straight SEC games, and right now they are 4-0 with two top 25 wins over the Texas Longhorns and Texas A&M Aggies. They are also back in the top 10.
Pittman was the Vols’ offensive line coach in 2012 and was part of one of the greatest offenses in school history. He then spent three years at Arkansas and three years at Georgia, but he could have still been on Rocky Top.
Finally, there are the notable names. Mike Leach is struggling with the Mississippi State Bulldogs at 2-2, but he always struggles his first two to three years on the job, so nobody has to worry about that long-term. Dave Doeren just led the N.C. State Wolfpack to an upset over Clemson. He finally appears to have the program he wants there.
To add insult to injury, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights are Greg Schiano, with their only loss coming by a touchdown at the Michigan Wolverines. That’s not to say hiring him would’ve been the smart move, but it must hurt to see that success.
Next. Vols' report card in 38-14 loss at Florida. dark
Taking all this into account, it’s clear Tennessee football missed on a lot of coaches. If you just go by what’s happening right now, the Vols were closest to hiring Kelly in 2008 and Tucker in 2017. Josh Heupel may very well work out, and his teams are fun to watch, but UT fans likely wouldn’t have to be wading through another rebuilding year of one of those hires was made at the time.