Tennessee football: Ranking all 25 full-time head coaches in Vols history
Pick Analysis. 1st head coach. J.A. Pierce. Scouting Report. 1899-1900. 10. player. 839
9-4-1 (2-3-1 SIAA)
Choosing between J.A. Pierce and M.B. Banks was tough. Ushering in new eras combined with winning seasons are always success stories, and to a degree, Banks had more of both than Pierce. He certainly coached longer, so he won more games, and as mentioned, he oversaw the implementation of numerous variables on Rocky Top cherished to this day.
J.A. Pierce, on the other hand, technically had a higher winning percentage, and he never had a losing season. Then there’s the fact that he was the first head coach in school history. Since neither coach won a championship, that’s enough to give Pierce the edge.
When you talk about saving a program, Pierce took over a year after the Vols fielded no team due to the Spanish-American War. He was a Lafayette College graduate, and the state of the sport was up in the air, not just because of the war putting it on hold but because of the violence associated with it. That carried into the South.
Before Teddy Roosevelt was president and saved the sport with the forward pass, Pierce saved the Vols. He took over, and in their return from war and their first season with a head coach, they went 6-2, only losing to VPI, now the Virginia Tech Hokies, and Sewanee.
It was a historic year, as they got their first wins ever over Kentucky and Georgia. The next year, Pierce went 3-2-1, beating King, Georgetown and Grant, but he did lose to North Carolina and Auburn. Still, he tied Vanderbilt, being the first coach not to lose that game.