Rating our Head Coaches

[Jaxon_Vol2017]

How is fulmer not an A? He won a national championship and was like 152-52. What the hell does a guy have to do to get an A?!?

 

[Volfan1000]

And Heupel did not win a national championship. Putting Heupel above Fulmer is completely ludicrous

Fulmer won that 1998 title by out recruiting everybody and he was not a very good game coach.

Heupel can also win a chip at Tennessee when Smart leaves Georgia.

 

[stolitonic]

Fulmer won that 1998 title by out recruiting everybody and he was not a very good game coach.

Heupel can also win a chip at Tennessee when Smart leaves Georgia.

Dude, Kirby isn't going anywhere for at least a decade and probably more. Dude is king of the city in Dawg world.

Only thing I can really see really caving their program would be some severe sanctions or something. You know that's not gonna be allowed to happen.

He doesn't seem the type to want to try the NFL. If anything and at best, he's an average in game coach. He is winning at Georgia with a ridiculous talent advantage against most teams. In the big leagues, parity is king.

Add that he's basically the same age as Heupel

 

[Carl Pickens]

Kiffin is an F too. What exactly did he do here?

Leave the cupboard bare and give Tennessee the finger

 

[Carl Pickens]

Fulmer won that 1998 title by out recruiting everybody and he was not a very good game coach.

Heupel can also win a chip at Tennessee when Smart leaves Georgia.

And what’s the problem? That’s a huge part of being a good coach.
Look at Saban’s and Smart’s recruiting numbers. They do it too

 

[Carl Pickens]

Fulmer, A- (championship)
Kiffin, D (what could've been)
Dooley, F (failed)
Butch, D (below average)
Schiano, expelled (should be in jail)
Pruitt, F (ugh)
Heupel, C+ * (average, disturbing warning signs in the near future)

I will bump his letter grade up to a B, if he hires a real offensive coordinator and open up the QB position up to competition in the off-season.

Dude still doesn’t even have a full roster bro….

 

[Volfan1000]

Neyland A+
Fulmer A
Dickey A-
Majors A-
Heupel A
Kiffin D-
Pruitt C-
Dooley D
Battle D
Jones C
Wyatt C+

athletic directors

Hamilton. D hired Kiffin, Dooley, Pearl
Dickey. B. Hired Fulmer, poor basketball hires
White A+. Hired Josh and Kim
Hart B- hired Barnes
Woodruff B. Hired Dickey, Battle , Majors, Summit
Fulmer D- Hired Pruitt
Currie B. Hired Vitello

Bowden Wyatt's biggest hire as athletic director was hiring Ray Mears from Wittenburg.
Woodruff also hired DeVoe from Wyoming.

 

[volsforever27]

Anyone that says Butch was a C or better is high on something.

He was a con man who partially benefited from a rare legacy class. What talent he had was wasted and sucked at coaching.

 

[feathersax]

Given the situation he inherited, I don't know how you can give Heupel anything less than an A.

The cupboard was indeed bare.

 

[Prayivm3rcy]

Getting owned by Georgia.

Along with everybody else besides Alabama

 

[Prayivm3rcy]

Heupel deserves atleast and A. Beating Alabama and Florida twice in only 4 years. Consistently ranked in the top 15 and we have been in the mix for the cfp all year for the second time in his tenure.

 

[BigBadVol]

Heupel a B-? WTF? Heupel is A++++. How quickly some of you forget.

 

[JMSqb11]

Agree.

He did very little. Ran off some of tge players we did have. Brought in his own guys which were either in jail or gone when he was

Tyler Bray was really the only piece that was left when Kiff blew town.

Dude left the program in so much worse shape than he was when he got here. Can't believe how many were ready to take him back

Well sir when the options came down to the likes of Dave Doeren, Jeremy Pruitt, and Mel Tucker while Lane Kiffin was publicly lobbying for the job, you can see why people like myself were more than willing to ride the Lane Train again instead of rolling the dice with a bottom feeder in the ACC or two first time head coaches from the Saban/Smart tree. Especially knowing that Lane was gonna end up back in the SEC guaranteed and we’d have to face him regardless.

Like of all the available options out there, there were light years between who we interviewed and Kiffin who would have come the minute we offered him from FAU. Unlike emotional people in that time, my whole bargaining chip attitude was just make it contract very strict financially if he leaves. It wasn’t rocket science that the village idiots were making it out to be in the height of the 2017 offseason.

 

[JMSqb11]

Heupel a B-? WTF? Heupel is A++++. How quickly some of you forget.

The South Carolina and Arkansas losses could very well be two games in his 4 seasons that keep Tennessee from 2 playoffs. I get the grade. I’m impartial to anything A+ to B-….

The fact Shane Beamer and Sam Pittman could keep Tennessee out of the playoffs 2 of 3 seasons is sickening.

 

[BigOrangeFanatic]

How is fulmer not an A? He won a national championship and was like 152-52. What the hell does a guy have to do to get an A?!?

He got super complacent after winning that title too and ended up leading to his downfall. An argument can also be made that he was only as good as his coordinators. Chavis and Cutcliffe were apart of alot of his success. We know what happened when Cut left him.

He's a solid B in my book.

 

[BigOrangeFanatic]

The South Carolina and Arkansas losses could very well be two games in his 4 seasons that keep Tennessee from 2 playoffs. I get the grade. I’m impartial to anything A+ to B-….

The fact Shane Beamer and Sam Pittman could keep Tennessee out of the playoffs 2 of 3 seasons is sickening.

Yep, until he wins an SEC Champ or makes a few playoffs he will firmly be in the B category for me as well. You can't keep having these stinker games against inferior opponents.

 

[JMSqb11]

Yep, until he wins an SEC Champ or makes a few playoffs he will firmly be in the B category for me as well. You can't keep having these stinker games against inferior opponents.

With that said, Heupel is is 35-13 in less than 4 seasons here.

Pruitt was blah
Butch was 34-27 in 5 seasons (1 less win in 61 games vs Heupel in 48 games)
Dooley was blah

Even if Heupel went .500 in the next 13 games to match Butch for games coached, he's 42-19...

 

[njvols]

Wow…

“We have entered The Twilight Zone.”

Fulmer, with the only natty in forever. And years of sustained excellence. Perfect? No, the end was ugly. But an A all the way.

And Heupel is an A to date. That could move down as he coaches more years. For context, Majors never got the Vols consistently at the top in nearly two decades of his rebuild.

Heupel has got us in the mix twice in his first four years after inheriting a dumpster fire…with a depleted roster and scholarship restrictions. That is an A.

The next step is a title.

Agree. JH moment in time small sample size A. Gotta give fulmer an A…all of us right now would trade for the cumulative 16 years he gave us. Majors has to be B+…he rebuilt us in a tougher time to build…3 SEC championships. Pruitt only true F because of the stench of probation he left us after his incompetence. Dooley and Butch ran clean programs, but were over their heads…D’s for me.

 

[BigOrangeFanatic]

With that said, Heupel is is 35-13 in less than 4 seasons here.

Pruitt was blah
Butch was 34-27 in 5 seasons (1 less win in 61 games vs Heupel in 48 games)
Dooley was blah

Even if Heupel went .500 in the next 13 games to match Butch for games coached, he's 42-19...

The one thing that Heupel should get a lot of credit for is turning us around so quickly. Never would have imagined him being able to do that. Literally in year 2 he had us in the playoff picture. Which is nothing short of amazing considering what he walked in to. He just needs to fine tune some things, mainly with coaching. I think with NIL now, and the money we have to spend, we should always be able to get quality players, just got to develop them and find the right fits within the system.

 

[Vol49er]

Fulmer won that 1998 title by out recruiting everybody and he was not a very good game coach.

Heupel can also win a chip at Tennessee when Smart leaves Georgia.

Recruiting is not just a part of college coaching but perhaps the most important part.

And we’re giving coaches credit for what they “can” do? Fulmer didn’t wait till Spurrier retired to start winning sec championships and national championships

 

[IndianapolisVol]

How would you rate our coaches from Neyland to present? Anytime we lose, we start criticizing coaches first. Curious, especially for the old timers who actually saw pre-Majors/Fulmer coaches, how you would rank them. Majors was the first coach I remember so I’m just guessing based on what I have read about the others. How do your rankings differ from mine? Was Neyland the only ‘great’ coach we have ever had?

Neyland - A
Wyatt - C+
Dickey B+
Battle C+
Majors B-
Fulmer B
Kiffin C+
Dooley D
Jones C-
Pruitt D-
Heupel B-

Fulmer & Majors are both College Football Hall of Famers. Both won National Championships. But you have Dickey ranked ahead of both…

Might be time for you to have your car keys taken away…

 

[IndianapolisVol]

Fuller was an average coach who rode a wave of player talent.

Regardless, he was the one responsible for recruiting all of that talent. What other coach have we had that loaded our roster like Phil did? I rest my case. He was a great coach and those were the best years of our lives as vol fans.

 

[J C Higgins]

Regardless, he was the one responsible for recruiting all of that talent. What other coach have we had that loaded our roster like Phil did? I rest my case. He was a great coach and those were the best years of our lives as vol fans.

A great coach gets the most from the player talent with which he has to work.
A great recruiter gets the best players,
His record reflects his ability to get the best players.

 

[Cartervol]

I'll grade him after next year. His first 3 really where just getting us back to some sort of equal footing in this league. His roster was gutted when he got here.

 

[LegionnaireOfTheMiserable]

How would you rate our coaches from Neyland to present? Anytime we lose, we start criticizing coaches first. Curious, especially for the old timers who actually saw pre-Majors/Fulmer coaches, how you would rank them. Majors was the first coach I remember so I’m just guessing based on what I have read about the others. How do your rankings differ from mine? Was Neyland the only ‘great’ coach we have ever had?

Neyland - A
Wyatt - C+
Dickey B+
Battle C+
Majors B-
Fulmer B
Kiffin C+
Dooley D
Jones C-
Pruitt D-
Heupel B-

I don’t understand how Phillip Fulmer won a national championship and is just marginally better than Lane Kiffin.

Dooley and Pruitt were F all the way. Butch is a D at best. Kiffin was here one year and had a couple of bad losses. C- at best, D when you consider the negative ramifications his departure caused. I’d give Heupel a B so far (a couple of horrendous losses hold him back from anything higher to this point because they prevented/could prevent playoff berths), Fulmer was a B+, only that low because of how it ended. Neyland was an A+. If you did a weighted GPA, he’d have a 4.3. Majors I’ll give a B. Dickey a B+. Battle and Wyatt at C+ seems appropriate.