It looks like the Tennessee Vols are going to be in the market for a new running backs coach. 

Football Scoop's John Brice reported on Friday that Vols running backs coach Jerry Mack is nearing a deal to become the Jacksonville Jaguars' new running backs coach. 

#BREAKING: Top #Vols assistant Jerry Mack (@CoachMack_Tenn) is likely heading to the @NFL with sources telling @FootballScoop "things are trending positively" for Mack to be hired by the Jacksonville Jaguars. Deal could be final in next 24 hours: https://t.co/ZY5jHfLhqq

— John Brice (@JohnDBrice1) February 9, 2024

Mack, who was previously the offensive coordinator at Rice and the head coach at North Carolina Central, joined Tennessee's coaching staff in 2021 when Josh Heupel was hired to replace Jeremy Pruitt as the program's head coach. 

Under Mack's guidance, Tennessee running back Jaylen Wright rushed for 1,013 yards this past season, which was the first 1,000 yard season for a Vols running back since Jalen Hurd in 2015. 

Tennessee has experienced remarkable staff continuity during the Heupel era. If Mack leaves for the NFL as expected, he'll be just the third assistant coach that Heupel's had to replace during his time at Tennessee (Heupel replaced wide receivers coach Kodi Burns, who left for the NFL, after the 2021 season and he replaced offensive coordinator Alex Golesh, who left to become the head coach at USF, after the 2022 season). 

Here are four options that could replace Mack at Tennessee. 

Anthony Jones — TCU RBs coach

This would be an ideal hire for the Vols. Jones, who is from Memphis, coached at Memphis for four seasons (2018-2021). He also spent time as the head coach at Westwood High School in Memphis (where he also attended high school). Those connections would certainly help Tennessee in Memphis, an incredibly important recruiting area for the Vols. 

Additionally, Jones played college football at Chattanooga, so he has some connections in that part of the state as well. Jones has worked in an Air Raid system at TCU under Sonny Dykes. While Tennessee doesn't run an Air Raid offense, there are at least some similarities, which would help Jones' transition to Heupel's offense be a little smoother (Heupel's roots are in the Air Raid system from his time under Mike Leach at Oklahoma). 

Kevin Smith — Ole Miss RBs coach

Smith and Heupel haven't worked together before, but they have plenty of shared connections. Smith worked at Ole Miss under Jeff Lebby, Heupel's offensive coordinator at UCF, from 2020 to 2021. Additionally, Smith, who played college football at UCF, was a quality control coach at UCF for a couple of seasons before Heupel arrived in Orlando. 

Most of Smith's time in college football has been spent working under Lane Kiffin, but that shouldn't stop the Vols from seeing if he's interested in leaving for Knoxville. 

Anthony Tucker — Mississippi State RBs coach

Tucker was Heupel's running backs coach for three seasons at UCF. In his final season at UCF, he was also the co-offensive coordinator. Tucker left UCF after the 2020 season, before Heupel got the job at Tennessee, to become the offensive coordinator at Utah State. 

The Vols have been spending more time recruiting in California in recent years and Tucker would help expand that blueprint since he's from Los Angeles. Tucker obviously has plenty of experience in Heupel's system so the transition would be seamless. One thing to consider is that Tucker currently works under Jeff Lebby at Mississippi State. Heupel and Lebby have a good relationship so I'm not sure if Heupel would attempt to poach a coach from his former offensive coordinator. 

Matt Merritt — Miami RBs coach

Merritt just left USF, where he was the running backs coach under former Vols offensive coordinator Alex Golesh, to become the new running backs coach at Miami. 

If the ink isn't dry on the contract yet, then maybe Tennessee can see if he's interested in coming to Rocky Top. 

Merritt was an offensive analyst at Tennessee in 2021 before serving as Georgia Southern's running backs coach in 2022. He was also set to serve as UCF's running backs coach in 2021 under Heupel, but those plans changed when Heupel landed the Tennessee job (that's when Merritt joined the Vols in an analyst role with Mack taking the running backs coach job). 

Merritt, who is from Cincinnati, spent three seasons as a graduate assistant at Ohio State from 2013 to 2015. 

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