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Tennessee football: Worst head coach hires in program history

There has been a good bit of coaching stability over the years in good ‘ol Rocky Top with Bob Neyland leading the team for 21 seasons between 1926 and 1952. Then Johnny Majors led the Tennessee Volunteers for 16 years before handing it off to Phil Fulmer for 16 more.

The Tennessee football program was in good hands for most of the 20th century, but things have been a bit more shaky since Fulmer’s last season in 2008. The Vols have been on a run of underwhelming head coaches with “brief” tenures in Knoxville.

In 2022, second-year head coach Josh Heupel restored the program to its previous glory, climbing all the way to #1 in the College Football Playoff standings before to going 11-2 and winning the Orange Bowl. Although it was the Vols’ first 10-win season since 2007, Heupel’s return to the team hasn’t been as successful.

Heupel is not on this list, although many well-known figures from the past few years are. Let’s begin with a coach who assumed the position in 1963.

For much the whole Bob Neyland tenure, Tennessee was a reliable program and a frequent winner; yet, once Neyland left, Tennessee fell into a dismal period. The third coach to take over after Neyland in an attempt to return the Volunteers to their previous glory was Jim McDonald..

He was hired in 1963 and didn’t last to see 1964 as the head coach of the Volunteers. It’s hard to follow a McDonald was simply following Bowden Wyatt, who was by no means a living legend when he was a Knoxville coach—a legendary coach like Neyland, for example.

McDonald had an All-American career as an Ohio State running back and was selected with the second pick in the 1938 NFL draft. He was Wyatt’s assistant, and over the final five years of his employment, he had a record of 25-22-3. The Vols needed a direction change badly, but they chose to elevate McDonald by hiring an insider.

McDonald finished 5-5 in his lone season and fell 35-0 to Alabama. Only because he was virtually an interim, stop-gap coach does he rank No. 5 on this list.

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