By Aidan Corley
Joe Kirt has been fired as Tennessee head soccer coach, Tennessee Athletics announced this afternoon.
Kirt had been a constant presence on the Tennessee staff for nearly 20 years, first as an assistant coach from 2007 to 2021 before spending his last five seasons as head coach of the Lady Vols.
His dismissal follows a disastrous 2026 campaign in which Tennessee finished tied with a program-low two wins in SEC play, placing the Lady Vols 13th in the SEC standings and failing to qualify for the conference tournament for the first time since 2019. Tennessee’s 7-5-4 record in 2026 is tied for the second fewest wins the school has had in a season. The inaugural 1996 season is the only time Tennessee finished with fewer wins, going 6-13.
Kirt took the helm in 2022 after then-head coach Brian Pensky moved to Florida State. Pensky’s final season in Knoxville was historic, guiding Tennessee to a program-record 20 wins and an SEC Tournament championship. In the five seasons since, Tennessee has won just two postseason games, while Florida State has won two national championships.
Hot starts that fizzled out by season’s end defined Kirt’s head coaching tenure at Tennessee, as every year followed a similar trajectory.
Kirt won nine of his first 13 games in charge of the Lady Vols in 2022, but as the season wound toward crunch time, he was unable to replicate Tennessee’s 2021 success. Tennessee won 11 games in October and November in 2021, but Kirt’s first year in charge ended with just two wins from the final six games and opening-round losses in both the SEC and NCAA tournaments.
2023 and 2024 featured identical records for Kirt’s squad at 9-7-4, and each season saw one postseason victory, making for the only two Kirt would achieve in his five seasons.
Kirt won six of his first nine games in 2023 only to win just two of the final eight regular season games. Tennessee scraped into the NCAA tournament following an opening game loss in the SEC tournament. A heroic overtime performance at Xavier where Tennessee walked away 1-0 winners despite conceding 41 shots gave Kirt his first and only NCAA victory.
Tennessee once again raced out of the blocks in 2024, winning seven times and losing just once through the first 11 games of the season. In the final six regular season matchups, Tennessee racked up four losses and won only once, narrowly qualifying for the SEC tournament. Kirt earned his only SEC tournament win over Kentucky in a 1-0 victory and nearly pulled off an upset over Mississippi State only to suffer defeat in overtime, and later another opening-round NCAA tournament loss this time at Virginia Tech.
Kirt returned a strong roster into 2025 and appeared to have his Lady Vols turning a corner. The season began with a shock that sent a statement to the college soccer world as Tennessee upset defending national champions and No. 1-ranked North Carolina. It was the program’s first-ever win over a No. 1-ranked team.
That shock soon became the standard for Tennessee and through seven games the Lady Vols climbed all the way to the No. 1 ranking for the first time in school history, and they did it all without conceding a goal. Through 13 games, Tennessee had won 11, lost just once, and were in with the nation’s elite. In the final six games, however, the Lady Vols managed only one win.
An LSU team that was on fire and entered on an eight-game unbeaten run handed Tennessee an opening game SEC tournament loss before a loss in a fateful rematch with North Carolina to open the NCAA tournament sent Kirt’s Lady Vols crashing out of the season.
Entering 2026, Tennessee hoped to flirt with college soccer’s pinnacle. A first-ever run to the semifinals of the NCAA tournament didn’t feel out of reach as the Lady Vols brought in the No. 5-ranked class of newcomer players, including transfers and freshmen, on top of loads of returning production.
Kirt had Tennessee on track for a season to remember, beginning the campaign nine games unbeaten for the first time since 2017 and into the top 10 of the national rankings.
It quickly became one to forget. Following two draws in a row, Tennessee welcomed in-state rivals Vanderbilt for a top 10 matchup in Knoxville. A 3-1 Vanderbilt win handed the Lady Vols their first loss of the season and became the first domino to fall in a catastrophic Tennessee collapse.
Not many could have predicted a win over LSU on Sept. 11 would be the last until Tennessee’s final game of the regular season on Nov. 1 against Oklahoma. Sandwiched between them was an eight-game winless run, the longest in school history. In that run was a spell of just one goal in six games for Tennessee, a problem that always plagued Kirt.
Late-season woes were Kirt’s Achilles Heel on the Tennessee sideline; the most recent edition in 2026 proved to be inexcusable.