Best OC in Tennessee history

#52
#52
In my lifetime ...

1. Cutcliffe
2. Walt Harris
3. Fulmer
4. Jim Chaney
5. Randy Sanders
6. Mike DeBord

Cutcliffe was the best I've seen. I know some are arguing that Cutcliffe had the best players to work with, but they wouldn't have necessarily been "the best players" without him. The obvious comparison is Erik Ainge pre-Cut versus Erik Ainge post-Cut. Ainge was a totally different player after Cutcliffe came back. Cutcliffe made everyone look better and he continues to do so at Duke today!

Walt Harris deserves more credit as many have mentioned. He's arguably in contention for #1 on the list.

Chaney is underrated primarily because Dooley sucked so bad, but Chaney's long-term track record has been very good, and our offense certainly was not the primary problem in 2012 (defense, weak recruiting, and Dooley were the problem!)

DeBord is easily the most overrated OC we've had in the past three decades. The argument for DeBord is "the stats", but the stats were inflated by plays per game / fast-paced offense. DeBord's teams had a very high Turnover-to-TD ratio and the 2016 team was extraordinarily undisciplined (very high number of penalties). The 2016 team also underperformed significantly against some stronger defenses (Bama, VT, Vandy, SC). DeBord was better than expected when hired, but not nearly as good as VN seems to believe right now. He certainly deserves credit for destroying Florida's defense in 2016, but I think people are giving him too much credit based on a moderately successful output from one of the most talented offensive rosters we've ever had. If DeBord had been OC in 2013, 2014, 2005, or 2008, VN would likely be cursing him.

Randy Sanders struggled in Knoxville, especially post 2001, but he's been very successful in other stops at Kentucky and Florida State. It seems as if Fulmer was holding him back substantially here and when you go back and look at Sanders' offenses, he did have good success at times, even if we mostly seem to remember the 2002 and 2005 debacles. So Sanders is probably the most underrated of the group. If Sanders had only been here two seasons (1998 and 1999) like DeBord, many would be saying he was #1 on the list.

Coach Bajakian is a difficult OC to evaluate primarily because he had so little to work with. No OC, no matter how brilliant, was going to have big success with that horrendous O-line in 2014 or the complete lack of skill players in 2013.

Dave Clawson is an example of a "good OC hired at the wrong time." You look at his track record, he's succeeded everywhere he's been, but it's often taken 3 - 4 years for his offensive system to take root. That said, if we're just going by his time at Tennessee, he was the worst of the bunch.
 
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#56
#56
Boca Vol said:
Cut or Walt Harris, IMO
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I agree 100%. Cut or Harris hands down. Each coached at different times and the game was different during each ones tenure. Sanders was beloved by his players but wasn't a great play caller. Great position coach though and a good guy!
 
#57
#57
Pre-1980: Doug Dickey. Hired as head coach but from outside the Neyland tree. He transitioned the Vols from single wing to a QB system. Jim McDonald experimented with some QB play during his failed year at the helm but it was Dickey that really led the transition.

Post-1980: David Cutcliffe. He succeeded in a difficult role with former OC Fulmer as HFC. His absolute mastery of the QB position changed the landscape for over a decade.
 
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#59
#59
wtorange said:
Phil fulmer was as good an OC as we have had. Walt Harris did a great job in establishing the system here. Fulmer and Cutcliffe learned the Harris system. Cut got his training from Fulmer.
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TRUE DAT!! Was gonna post something about Harris....

Coach Cut brought great discipline and intolerance for laziness on the entire offense while he was OC. It became easy to see once he left and came back.

Nevertheless, he surely laid some eggs on game-day play-calling and performance. Memphis, many Vandy games, and I've always heard that Fulmer took over for him calling the plays for that last drive against Arky in '98. Don't know if it's true or not.....

GO VOLS!
 
#60
#60
6 straight runs from Travis Henry if I recall...

Maybe folks need a refresher on the years when Fulmer was the OC. Tennessee set several offensive records during that time.
 
#66
#66
amavol2 said:
Al Saunders was pretty good.
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My understanding is that Al Saunders was hired by Majors to completely overhaul the offense and install the pro style system that Walt Harris, Phil Fulmer, David Cutcliffe and Randy Sanders all ran afterwards.

I don't think you can pick one more than the other based off of anything more than quarterback play.
 
#67
#67
ksgovols said:
My understanding is that Al Saunders was hired by Majors to completely overhaul the offense and install the pro style system that Walt Harris, Phil Fulmer, David Cutcliffe and Randy Sanders all ran afterwards.

I don't think you can pick one more than the other based off of anything more than quarterback play.
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Solid comment.

I have trouble thinking about this without considering actual games/game plans since that is OC function whereas the talent/scheme is more tied to the HC in my limited observation.

So what games have we seen Tennessee really look sharp on O?

A few that come to mind are:

UF and UGA '92 - The games that basically started the Fulmer HC train
UGA '16/'17 - Debord overcame some serious turnovers/etc to put us in position to win
UF '01 - Ah, VFL34...what a season
FSU '98 nat'l title game - That was a salty D we ran into

There are many others, but Fulmer is showing up an awful lot as I think about this.
 
#68
#68
Don't forget about the 1990 Florida game. Tennessee brought down the thunder in the third quarter of that game, running off 28 unanswered points to break open a 7-3 halftime lead. The Big Orange eventually defeated Spurrier's first Florida team, 45-3.
 
#70
#70
Volstylexx said:
In my lifetime, Statistically speaking, Debord.
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In 1993 Tennessee's offense was statistically better they just played less games.
They scored 2 less points
1 less TD
And had 482 less yards in 11 games vs. 2016's 13 games.

The 1993 team averaged 480 ypg to 2016's 443 and 6.94 ypp to 2016's 6.44.

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk
 
#73
#73
MikeVol44 said:
TRUE DAT!! Was gonna post something about Harris....

Coach Cut brought great discipline and intolerance for laziness on the entire offense while he was OC. It became easy to see once he left and came back.

Nevertheless, he surely laid some eggs on game-day play-calling and performance. Memphis, many Vandy games, and I've always heard that Fulmer took over for him calling the plays for that last drive against Arky in '98. Don't know if it's true or not.....

GO VOLS!
Click to expand...

What OC hasn't laid some eggs throughout their career? You should be thankful that they do or your second fan badge there wouldn't have won another Super Bowl 2 weeks ago.
 
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