The Tennessee Vols didn't want to see running backs coach David Johnson go to Florida State.

In fact, they tried to keep him. Tennessee made Johnson a strong offer to stay in Knoxville, but it wasn't enough to keep him from heading to Tallahassee to rejoin his good friend Mike Norvell.

The Vols ended up replacing Johnson with former UT running back Jay Graham, who coached at Tennessee in 2012 under Derek Dooley (and briefly for a couple of months under Butch Jones, before he went to Florida State just after signing day in 2013).

It could be argued that Graham is an upgrade over Johnson.

That might be the case. It's impossible to know just yet.

But there are a couple of areas where the loss of Johnson will definitely be felt for the Vols.

The first is obviously his Memphis connection. Johnson worked on Norvell's staff at Memphis for two seasons and developed some key relationships. Those relationships helped Tennessee land five plays in the 2020 recruiting cycle from Memphis.

But that's not the only important connection that Johnson provided.

Johnson is a New Orleans native, which gave the Vols a unique connection to Louisiana that can be hard to develop.

It's tough to steal elite players from Louisiana — most of the highly touted recruits end up at LSU.

But there's still plenty of talent in Louisiana. And LSU can't take them all.

Before Johnson left Tennessee, he was working hard on four-star defensive back Kaine Williams, a 6-foot-2 safety that would be a tremendous fit in Jeremy Pruitt's defense.

Williams recently told Rivals that Johnson offered him while he was at Tennessee, but that relationship has how transferred to Florida State. Williams noted "We've kept that bond and switching schools didn't change anything. Florida State is a school I've been watching and a school I could see myself playing for. It was perfect I guess."

I don't know how much of a threat Tennessee would've been for Williams if Johnson had stayed in Knoxville, but I know the Vols aren't much of a threat now that he's gone.

Moving forward, I think Tennessee will be fine in Memphis. Now that the door is open, they shouldn't have any problems recruiting the area. The Vols have a Memphis presence now with or without Johnson.

But the connection to Louisiana is something that could've been helpful. That's an area that produces plenty of talent. Landing a player or two from there every couple of recruiting cycles could've been a nice bonus.

This isn't anything that's going to sink the ship obviously, but it was still a nice connection to have.

Of course, with Graham now on staff, the Vols have a much stronger connection to North Carolina (Graham's home state), which is an area where they can consistently have more success than they can in Louisiana.

I think this coaching change probably worked out in the Vols' favor, but losing Johnson definitely affected Tennessee's future recruiting plans.

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