Some Tennessee football coaches passed the Year Two test, some didn't | Mike Strange

Year One of Josh Heupel raised hope across a hungry Tennessee football fan base. Improvement is assumed for Year Two. The only question is how much.

I would caution against assumptions. Things happen. There are a lot of moving parts in a football season, a lot of potential potholes.

Now I’m not throwing any wet blankets. There are valid reasons why the Vols could improve on last year’s 7-6.

More often than not, Tennessee coaches have improved in Year Two. Two even made giant leaps.

But several also retreated. I’ll tell their stories first.

Harvey Robinson replaced Robert Neyland in 1953. His first team finished 6-4-1. His second backslid to 4-6 and won one SEC game. There was no third year for Robinson.

Bill Battle’s 1970 debut was 11-1 with a Sugar Bowl win. His sophomore season was still good, 10-2, just not quite as good.

Phil Fulmer took over a juggernaut from Johnny Majors in 1993 and went 9-2-1. Heisman runner-up Heath Shuler powered the Vols to a school-record 42.8 points a game.

Then Shuler left for the NFL and the ’94 season derailed when quarterback Jerry Colquitt went down on the season’s opening drive. By the time freshman Peyton Manning emerged from a QB scramble, the Vols were 1-3. They finished strong at 8-4 and were set for a wonderful rest of the ‘90s.

Derek Dooley went 6-7 in 2010. It would have been 8-5 if wins over LSU and North Carolina hadn’t died in the final seconds. In 2011, Dooley slumped to 5-7, 1-7 SEC, including the first loss to Kentucky since 1984. He never recovered.

Seven other coaches moved forward in Year Two. The giant leaps were by Bowden Wyatt and Doug Dickey.

Wyatt arrived in 1955 and went 6-3-1. In ’56, though, senior Majors, another Heisman runner-up, drove UT to a 10-0 regular season and SEC title. The Vols were ranked No. 2 when they were upset by Baylor in the Sugar Bowl.

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Dickey brought the T-formation to campus in 1964. His first team went 4-5-1, won one SEC game and averaged a meager 8.0 points.

The ’65 Vols bloomed to 8-1-2, losing only to Ole Miss. They averaged 20 points a game and made UT’s first bowl appearance since 1957, a Bluebonnet Bowl win over Tulsa.

Otherwise, second-year progress has been modest.

Neyland went 8-1 in his 1926 debut, losing only to Vanderbilt. In ’27, he tied Vandy and finished 8-0-1.

While Neyland was at war, John Barnhill inched forward, from 8-2 in 1941 to 9-1-1 in ’42.

Majors came home in 1977 off a national title at Pittsburgh. Alas, his first Tennessee team went 4-7, with one SEC win.

And ’78 started worse, 1-4-1. However, the November schedule was kinder and the Vols won four of the last five. Final count: 5-5-1, 3-3 SEC. Improvement.

Fast forward to Butch Jones.

Inheriting Dooley’s mess, Jones went 5-7 in 2013, 2-6 in the SEC. Five of the seven losses were to top-10 teams.

Jones’ 2014 schedule included “only” three top-10 foes. The Vols finished 7-6, 3-5 in SEC play. Beating Iowa in the Gator Bowl assured UT’s first winning season since 2009.

Emerging from the coaching-search fiasco to replace Jones, Jeremy Pruitt went 5-7 in 2018. His two SEC wins were over ranked teams, Auburn and Kentucky. But lopsided losses to Missouri and Vandy ended the season on a downer.

And 2019 started on another double downer, losses to Georgia State and BYU.

But the Vols rallied, taking their final six games, including a Gator Bowl win over Indiana, to finish 8-5, 5-3 SEC. Clear progress.

Now Heupel’s on the clock.

Mike Strange is a former writer for the News Sentinel. He currently writes a weekly sports column for Shopper News.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: How Tennessee football coaches did in Year Two | Mike Strange