Tennessee football: Ranking all 25 full-time head coaches in Vols history

4-5 (2-3 SEC)

Sticking with people who coached Tennessee football after Gen. Robert Neyland, W.H. Britton was the first to do it. After an epic run in the Southern Conference from 1926 to 1932 and then joining the SEC in 1933, the General had to leave after the 1934 season for military service, and he spent a year in Panama.

Britton, who was teammates with Neyland playing with the Army Black Knights in 1914 and 1915 and had actually gone 3-2-1 with the Hawaii Deans as a head coach in 1916 (now Hawaii Rainbow Warriors), seemed like the logical choice to replace Neyland. He had been his trusted assistant his entire first stint on Rocky Top.

As a result, he took over. It wasn’t a good season. The Vols followed every win with a loss on the year until the end, when they lost two straight game to end the season, as Vanderbilt and Kentucky beat them. That’s always bad enough, but they also lost to Alabama, Duke and the Norht Carolina Tar Heels, all rivals at the time.

Now, this could have put Britton down there with Stone, Crawford and the others. However, he inherited a much more difficult situation, as UT was struggling in the SEC under Neyland, and Neyland’s departure was still shocking. He kept the ship moving, though, so it was in good shape when Neyland returned a year later, and that keeps him a bit higher.