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Tennessee football: Comparing Josh Heupel’s fourth year of career to other Vols head coaches

By Caleb Calhoun

Nov 6, 2021; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; Tennessee Volunteers head coach Josh Heupel motions to his team during the fourth quarter against the Kentucky Wildcats at Kroger Field. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 6, 2021; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; Tennessee Volunteers head coach Josh Heupel motions to his team during the fourth quarter against the Kentucky Wildcats at Kroger Field. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-USA TODAY Sports /
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Aug 30, 2014; Laramie, WY, USA; A general view of Jonah Field at War Memorial Stadium before the game between the Wyoming Cowboys and the Montana Grizzlies at War Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Troy Babbitt-USA TODAY Sports
Aug 30, 2014; Laramie, WY, USA; A general view of Jonah Field at War Memorial Stadium before the game between the Wyoming Cowboys and the Montana Grizzlies at War Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Troy Babbitt-USA TODAY Sports /

Pick Analysis. 3. player. Bowden Wyatt. 903. Scouting Report. 1950. Wyoming Cowboys

10-0 (5-0 Skyline)

Skyline Champion; Won Gator Bowl; No. 12 AP; No. 14 Coaches

Back to coaches who were in their fourth year on the job before Tennessee football, Bowden Wyatt was a Robert Neyland protege. He played for the 1938 team that went 11-0 and won the national title before becoming an assistant with the Mississippi State Maroons, a tenure interrupted by World War II.

After the war, Wyatt spent one more year with MSU before taking his first head coaching job, leading the Wyoming Cowboys. He went 4-5 each of his first two years, but in 1949, he went 9-1, winning the Skyline Six Conference Championship and only losing to the Baylor Bears.

In 1950, he had his best season before the Vols. Wyatt’s team went 10-0, won the Skyline again and beat the No. 18 ranked Washington and Lee Generals in the Gator Bowl. They finished in the top 15 of both polls, and if polls were conducted at the end of the season at that time, they would have finished in the top 10.

Wyatt went 7-2-1 and 5-4 the next two years before taking over Arkansas, where he went 3-7 and then 8-3, winning the 1954 Southwest Title. That brought him to Tennessee football in 1955, but this one year at Wyoming is what really raised his profile.

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