Trivia Question: What head football coach has lost the most times to Tennessee?

#1
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Volosaurus rex

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#1
An interesting little trivia question came to mind: What head football coach has lost the most times to Tennessee? I don’t recall the answer but I believe that it is some journeyman coach who bounced around at several lower-tier SEC schools. In any event, the Bear is almost certainly second in this category. Consider the following data in terms of head-to-head competition with Tennessee at his various coaching jobs:

Maryland (1945): 0-0-0
Kentucky (1946-1953): 1-5-2 (but 0-5-2 vs. Neyland)
Texas A & M (1954-1957): 0-1
Alabama (1958-1982): 16-7-2

Total: 17-13-2. As great as Bryant was, he lost to Tennessee an astounding thirteen times. That could explain, in part, why he placed such importance on the Tennessee-Alabama rivalry. Both Neyland and Bryant considered the Third Saturday in October the annual measuring stick for their respective teams.
 
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#5
#5
VolFan4Life87 said:
Surely it's past Vandy or Kentucky coach
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Thought this too but none of them were around long enough to lose 13 times to us. I first guessed Jerry Claiborne even though UK beat the Vols in '84 but he was only there from '82-'89. Not sure who it could be.
 
#7
#7
2nd guess was Vince Dooley only because of his long tenure at Georgia. Then I remembered that we didn't play them every year back then.
 
#12
#12
I don't remember the answer either and my memory could be deceiving me. It seems, however, that I heard, in the course of a game telecast, that this guy lost sixteen games to Tennessee at 3 or 4 different SEC and/or ACC lower-tier programs. To the best of my knowledge, he is not deceased. And, if he is retired, it was relatively recent. Those are the only clues that come to mind, other than I do seem to recall him having spent part of his career at Kentucky.
 
#17
#17
Volosaurus rex said:
I don't remember the answer either and my memory could be deceiving me. It seems, however, that I heard, in the course of a game telecast, that this guy lost sixteen games to Tennessee at 3 or 4 different SEC and/or ACC lower-tier programs. To the best of my knowledge, he is not deceased. And, if he is retired, it was relatively recent. Those are the only clues that come to mind, other than I do seem to recall him having spent part of his career at Kentucky.
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Bill Curry is the closest fit to the clues you're giving, but he has 12 losses to UT.
He was at GT from 1980-86, Bama from 87-89, and KY from 90-96, before spending the last three seasons and Georgia State and then retiring.

Jerry Claiborne coached at VT (before they were in the ACC) and UMD before KY, but he didn't face us enough times, he retired after the 1989 season, and he is deceased.
 
#18
#18
Volosaurus rex said:
An interesting little trivia question came to mind: What head football coach has lost the most times to Tennessee? I don’t recall the answer but I believe that it is some journeyman coach who bounced around at several lower-tier SEC schools. In any event, the Bear is almost certainly second in this category. Consider the following data in terms of head-to-head competition with Tennessee at his various coaching jobs:

Maryland (1945): 0-0-0
Kentucky (1946-1953): 1-5-2 (but 0-5-2 vs. Neyland)
Texas A & M (1954-1957): 0-1
Alabama (1958-1982): 16-7-2

Total: 17-13-2. As great as Bryant was, he lost to Tennessee an astounding thirteen times. That could explain, in part, why he placed such importance on the Tennessee-Alabama rivalry. Both Neyland and Bryant considered the Third Saturday in October the annual measuring stick for their respective teams.
Click to expand...

That actually adds up to 17-13-4, FWTW.
Maybe they announced Bryant was first, and you missed that part, and then they asked who's second.
 
#19
#19
Here's a list of Tennessee's series records (sorted by wins), that at least serves as a reasonable starting point:

Series Records

Vandy and Kentucky have lost to us the most, but few coaches from either school have stuck around for more than a decade. Mississippi and Alabama are next, but if it's not Vaught, I can't see who else it'd be from Ole Miss.

My guess is that maybe you misheard the question and that Bear Bryant is the correct answer, with Bill Curry second. Curry actually coaches at several of the schools that have lost a bunch to UT (Georgia Tech, Kentucky, and Alabama).

Bobby Dodd and John Vaught are the only other two coaches that I can think of that might've been around long enough to rack up a number of losses, but doesn't look like either of them have more than 10 losses to UT. Someone already posted Vaught's record. Dodd has somewhere between 6 - 9 losses to UT (just from looking at the series records by decade).
 
#21
#21
It would take a coach that has been around a long time and coached at schools the UT plays on a regular basis. The only ones that fit (in my lifetime) are Bryant, Spurrier, and Curry.
 
#22
#22
Scrappy Moore was the HC at Chattanooga from 1931 to 1967. During that time, Tennessee was 25-1 vs the Mocs. Looks like ol Scrappy gets the prize on this one.
 
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