Former Josh Heupel assistant coach at Tennessee named by ESPN as a candidate to be the next Curt Cignetti in college football

Could a couple of former Tennessee Vols assistant coaches be the next Curt Cignetti in college football?

Zach Ragan — Tennessee Volunteers News Writer
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College football programs in search of a new head coach would love to find the next version of Indiana’s Curt Cignetti.

Cignetti was hired by Indiana ahead of the 2024 season after a five year run as the head coach at James Madison (Cignett went 52-9 during his time at JMU).

Indiana went 11-2 in the first year of the Cignetti era, falling to Notre Dame in the first round of the College Football Playoff.

The Hoosiers are 10-0 this season with games remaining against Wisconsin and Purdue (Indiana has a spot in the College Football Playoff all but locked up).

ESPN names a couple of former Tennessee Vols assistant coaches as candidates to be the next Curt Cignetti

On Friday, ESPN pointed out a few coaches that they believe could be the next Cignetti.

Former Vols running backs coach Jerry Mack was one of the coaches that was listed by ESPN.

Mack served as Tennessee’s running backs coach under head coach Josh Heupel from 2021 to 2023. He left Tennessee after the 2023 season to take the same role with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Mack, who previously served as the head coach at North Carolina Central from 2014 to 2017, was hired as the head coach at Kennesaw State after the 2024 season.

“Mack’s career journey might be closest to Cignetti’s, given the varying levels where he has coached,” wrote ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg. “A wide receiver at Jackson State and Arkansas State, Mack coached wideouts at multiple stops, including Memphis, before becoming a head coach at North Carolina Central, an HBCU, where he went 31-15 with four winning seasons, three MEAC titles and a Celebration Bowl appearance. Mack then gained offensive coordinator experience at Rice before coming to Tennessee, where he coached running backs from 2021 to 2023.”

Mack is 7-2 through his first nine games at Kennesaw State (which includes a win over Butch Jones and Arkansas State).

ESPN also named former Vols offensive coordinator Tyson Helton as another coach who could be the next Cignetti.

Helton, who served as Tennessee’s offensive coordinator in 2018 under then head coach Jeremy Pruitt, has been the head coach at Western Kentucky since 2019. He’s 55-34 as the head coach of the Hilltoppers.

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