Most Over/Underrated Vol Coach

#1
#1fulmerite

#1fulmerite

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#1
Who is your most Overrated Vol Coach?

Who is your most Underrated Vol Coach?


For me, overrated has to be Trooper Taylor.

For me, Underrated has to be Ken Donahue.

As our RB coach, he never seemed to develop any of our guys. I know Houston and Riggs both ran for a grand each during one season but, it seems like he coached them to get tackled and fall sideways. Other than whooping and hollering and twirling a towel for attention, we could have had better.

Donahue gave us some good times and some good games! His D gave us the Sugar Vols and that Sugar Bowl win. Everyone seems to forget at that awesome’87 season and how important his D was. Majors made him the scapegoat of that ‘88 season but, he was good till opposing coaches figured out how to scheme his defense.

What are your two choices volnation?
 
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#2
#2
Sticking with head coaches...

Over-rated: Johnny Majors. Love the man, really glad he was one of our head coaches, but he never came close to meeting our hopes and expectations after winning a national title at Pitt. He was good, and we sentimentally keep him somewhere in the top 4 or 5 or so on all our lists, but that over-rates his tenure.

Under-rated: John Barnhill. With a win rate even the General couldn't touch, the man is our winningest head coach ever. Sure, he only "filled in" for Neyland during World War II. Nevertheless, he stood on his own two feet for four seasons over a five-year stretch, and didn't miss a beat.

Go Vols!
 
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#4
#4
Head Coaches….

Overrated: Phillip Fulmer. He had great assistant coaches around him that carried him. He also coached when (other than Spurrier) the SEC wasn’t loaded with great coached teams week end and week out. He had great players but couldn’t win like he should have. In reality, he underachieved with one NC. He had teams that should have won at least 3 NC. He also refused to change.

Underrated: Johnny Majors. He came back to Tennessee when we needed him. He brought us back to relevance and had it rolling before an assistant coach made a play for his job. Coached hard, recruited hard and worked hard for every Tennessee fan. Will always be top 3 coaching greats on the Hill for me. Go Vols.
 
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#6
#6
Overrated?….. Chavis and the mustang package comes to mind, but overall he was good…. But had some damn good players.
Not sure he’s overrated as a whole.

Gotta go with Kiffin

Underrated …. Mike DeBord
 
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#9
#9
Underrated: Dave Lawson. He was the best strength coach we had on campus since Johnny Long. The sharp decline in our team's physical makeup and toughness after he was let go was severe! Many bad decisions ultimately lead to Butch Jones being fired, and letting Dave Lawson go was a major one! Players complained that he was too hard on them. Awww, poor babies! And yeah you saw the difference on the field when he was fired and replaced with a babysitter!

Overrated: Hate to say it, but it has to be Majors. When you compare his actual accomplishments here VS the expectations everyone had when he was hired, he never lived up to them! I love the guy. I'm still glad he got to be our coach here. But 15 seasons, only 3 SEC championships, and no national championship VS what fans expected. Yes he is overrated considering the fondness that fans have for the man. Anybody else would've never gotten 15 years with that little to show for it.
 
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#10
#10
Underrated ... was it Phil Bennett that was our DB coach long about 69, 70 ...? We had DB play back in those days.

Edit: LBs, too. Who coached them?

Overrated ... don't want to go there.
 
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#13
#13
VFL-82-JP said:
Sticking with head coaches...

Over-rated: Johnny Majors. Love the man, really glad he was one of our head coaches, but he never came close to meeting our hopes and expectations after winning a national title at Pitt. He was good, and we sentimentally keep him somewhere in the top 4 or 5 or so on all our lists, but that over-rates his tenure.

Under-rated: John Barnhill. With a win rate even the General couldn't touch, the man is our winningest head coach ever. Sure, he only "filled in" for Neyland during World War II. Nevertheless, he stood on his own two feet for four seasons over a five-year stretch, and didn't miss a beat.

Go Vols!
Click to expand...
If Johnny coached at Tennessee in the modern era, he would have been fired after his 3rd or 4th season. Rightly or wrongly, he would have never been given the time that he got in the modern sport.

He had a big personality and was an incredible player here, and it leads to people overrating how good of a coach he was.
 
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#15
#15
05_never_again said:
If Johnny coached at Tennessee in the modern era, he would have been fired after his 3rd or 4th season. Rightly or wrongly, he would have never been given the time that he got in the modern sport.

He had a big personality and was an incredible player here, and it leads to people overrating how good of a coach he was.
Click to expand...
Majors best characteristic is his ability to identify and hire coaching talent.
If you combine Fulmers likeability and recruiting prowess with Majors assistant coaches, you would have several championships
 
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