Through 60 games

[Pride85]

That's sort of disappointing to see. About like Bill Battle except Heupel has more season ending upsides the last few years. Battle was ending on a downside.

Not even close to being like Bill Battle. Bill Battle took over a good team left him by Doug Dickey. Did well with those recruits then drove the program into the ground. Heupel took over the type of team the Johnny Majors walked into. Bill Battle, Like Beldar, had decimated the roster and the culture was in shambles. Also, neither came into the program late in the year nor were handed a recruiting restriction right off the bat. From the ruins, he quickly brought UT out of a TWENTY-year drought.

 

[wmcovol]

That's sort of disappointing to see. About like Bill Battle except Heupel has more season ending upsides the last few years. Battle was ending on a downside.

Battle took over a top 5 program nationally. 2 SEC titles in the last 3 yrs before he was hired. Battle was 31-5 after 3 yrs. Pretty amazing Josh is that close considering the direct opposite circumstances.

 

[MOOOOONEY]

Majors is always talked highly of and yet barely a .500 coach. Surprised to see his record. Obviously he played for UT and was a great player as well.

Actually at Tennessee a 62% winning percentage.

Post the first 60 games it was about 67% with 3 SEC championships and arguably should have been in the talks for the 1989 mythical National Championship (which IMO we win if Cobb isn’t busted on a pizz test before the bama game)

CJM left the cub bards fully stocked for CPF.

 

[VolBricks]

Butch had a better record than Johnny Majors?

 

[Carl Pickens]

Look at Tennessee’s record for the three seasons prior to each coach being hired:

Josh Heupel (Pruitt) 16-19 0.457
Doug Dickey (McDonald/Wyatt ) 15-15 0.500
Johnny Majors (Battle) 20-13-2 0.600
Phil Fulmer (Majors) 27-8-2 0.757
Bill Battle (Dickey) 26-6-1 0.803

Majors must have really pissed off the powers that be to get fired

 

[Flipdaddy]

Yes, we could be in a much worse situation. Josh deserves time and he showed a few weeks ago that he’s not oblivious to our problems.

 

[orangebloodgmc]

Actually at Tennessee a 62% winning percentage.

Post the first 60 games it was about 67% with 3 SEC championships and arguably should have been in the talks for the 1989 mythical National Championship (which IMO we win if Cobb isn’t busted on a pizz test before the bama game)

CJM left the cub bards fully stocked for CPF.

But CPF was a major part of the staff that was fully stocking the CJM cupboard.

 

[MurphyVol]

Majors was given an incredibly long leash, unheard of by today's standards. It took him 14 years to have back to back 9+ win seasons.

 

[08Vol]

Butch Jones is on a Tennessee “top” list and I’m not……doesn’t feel right.

For a coach to make it to 60 games they’ve got to have a few decent years. Gotta imagine most coaches are fired before they get to 60 games.

 

[Volizona]

One of Fulmer’s greatest accomplishments thats not represented in his win/ loss percentage was recruiting Peyton Manning. I saw a list of the Greatest SEC Football legends and Manning is the only player in the top of that list that did not play for a college in their home state ( Hershel, Bo Jackson, Tebow).
Having Peyton Manning as an ambassador for Tennessee Football is priceless.

The fame Manning has achieved is really unmatched. The SNL 50 year Anniversary show was indicative of this when they asked 10 guests to standup and be part of the live skit. All of them were hand picked for the segment. Manning was chosen alongside some of the top actors in the world, top singers including a Knighted Famous Rolling Stones Keith Richards and other worldly people.

* one of Cutcliffe’s greatest accomplishments

 

[marcusluvsvols]

The SEC is a much deeper and more competitive conference now than ever before. Not only from adding 4 teams that are almost always all 4 top25...texas, OK, aTm, mizzou ....also traditonal doormat teams like Vandy and MSU even have solid teams that can beat your team on any given week. I am almost 50yo and parity in this league has never been anywhere close to what it is now. Vandy just stole a 5* QB recruit to replace their Heisman finalist QB...let that sink in.

Despite this CJH has averaged 9.5wins per season for the last 4 years despite taking over a dumpster fire and playing his first 2 seasons with dozens less players on his roster than all his opponents who had 85. Recruiting has improved every single season since he got here too. Our roster is now over 50% Bluechips (top300 recruits). We have the youngest roster in the SEC now by a wide margin. Most of our 25class was able to redshirt too.

All this plus the 2025 and 26 classes being top10 classes means we should have playoff teams in 2027 and 2028 and make a run at a Title. We have been steadily building talent towards it and now hired one of the top DCs in FBS in Knowles. CJH has done a great job here at UT and all signs point towards us being 1 of the dozen or so teams in FBS with a good chance to make the playoffs more seasons than not. Thats all anyone can ask for in the NIL era. GO VOLS

**edit. How tough is the SEC now? 14 out of 16 SEC tèams rosters are ranked top25 most talented. 14 of them. Only UK at 27th and Vandy at 55th are NOT ranked top25. VOLS are 16th.

https://247sports.com/season/2025-football/collegeteamtalentcomposite/

 

[Woodlawn VOL]

No doubt Battle walked into a great situation, probably the best any Tennessee coach ever walked into. Tennessee was a top 5 powerhouse program when Dickey left. In retrospect I think Majors would have kept it going. Nothing against Battle, it just wasn’t his time. GBO

 

[LivinginthePast]

Why is there not a blockbuster movie on Robert neyland ? So many opportunities to claim a national championship. Tennessee was the **** back then. College football in the thirties and fifties was the most popular sport i believe.

 

[SPRINGHILLVOL]

Josh Heupel is the 8th coach in Tennessee Football history to coach 60 games. Here is every Tennessee Football coach’s record through 60 games.

Note: Heupel has now coached 64 games at UT with a record of 45-19

1. Robert Neyland: 54-2-4

2. Philip Fulmer: 49–10-1

3. Bill Battle: 46-12-2

T4: Doug Dickey: 43-13-4

T4: Josh Heupel: 43-17

6. Bowden Wyatt: 40-17-3

7. Butch Jones: 34-26

8. Johnny Majors: 30-29-1

Heupel critical time will be the next 2 years.. not. nt the past 5 years!!!

 

[Rickyvol77]

Butch had a better record than Johnny Majors?

Majors had a harder rebuilding job AND was playing a killer schedule his first 4-5 seasons, as usual UT really overscheduled the early 80s and 90s

 

[Zues1]

Removing the ties " we use to call that kissing your sister" that's around a 730 winning percentage for these coaches.

 

[KTrain]

Josh Heupel is the 8th coach in Tennessee Football history to coach 60 games. Here is every Tennessee Football coach’s record through 60 games.

Note: Heupel has now coached 64 games at UT with a record of 45-19

1. Robert Neyland: 54-2-4

2. Philip Fulmer: 49–10-1

3. Bill Battle: 46-12-2

T4: Doug Dickey: 43-13-4

T4: Josh Heupel: 43-17

6. Bowden Wyatt: 40-17-3

7. Butch Jones: 34-26

8. Johnny Majors: 30-29-1

Fulmer & Battle did good jobs but the program was in good shape and on on the upswing when they took over. Dickey took over program in 1964 he and Heupel took over programs that were just in bad leadership eras as did Majors. The SEC was a top heavy league from 1960s to the 90s and had some bad Head coaches during that era with a few hall of famers on the top end. Now I would say the coaching in the SEC is pretty deep top to bottom as it is in the B1G also.

 

[NCFisher]

CJM left the cub bards fully stocked for CPF.

 

[Vol865]

Majors was given an incredibly long leash, unheard of by today's standards. It took him 14 years to have back to back 9+ win seasons.

And now we want to fire a guy who won 10+ in Year 2 and 4

 

[VOLINVONORE]

If we never fire Bill Battle, Bama never hires Saban. We laid our own groundwork for those beatdowns lol. But to be fair if he stayed around we would have been a bottom feeder forever.

I was a friend of Bill Battle, but I have to admit he just could not recruit football,players. He was a really good. Xs& Os coach but couldn’t get the Jimmies and Joes needed to win in the SEC.

 

[VOLINVONORE]

Dooley coached at Bama but he’s a UGA boy. Don’t think he coached at Bama under Saban before taking the LA Tech job, where we.,, found him languishing… He was at LSU with Saban. He may have spent a year at Bama with Saban before (my memory is fuzzy on that), but I am pretty sure he had been at Louisiana Tech a full 3 seasons before we hired him.

Either way, Dooley is no Bammer. He likes to bark at people in public.

 

[VOLINVONORE]

Dooley was probably the worst head coach Tennessee has ever hired.

 

[orangebloodgmc]

And now we want to fire a guy who won 10+ in Year 2 and 4

No, we do not.

 

[Vol865]

No, we do not.

The way some talk, they're about ready to.

 

[BernardKingGOAT]

I was a friend of Bill Battle, but I have to admit he just could not recruit football,players. He was a really good. Xs& Os coach but couldn’t get the Jimmies and Joes needed to win in the SEC.

He recruited well at skill positions but was weak in the trenches