What the Vols’ latest personnel staffer move means for Tennessee Football’s roster management moving forward
The Tennessee Vols reportedly hired a new personnel staffer this week.
The Tennessee Vols had some personnel staff shake-up on Friday.
According to CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz, the Missouri Tigers are hiring Tennessee director of player personnel Jake Breske to a “lead front office” role.
Breske has spent the last five seasons with the Volunteers. He first worked with Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel at Missouri in 2016 (when Heupel served as the Tigers’ offensive coordinator).
Zenitz also reported on Friday that Tennessee is hiring Ryan Smith, Auburn’s assistant general manager of player personnel last season, to a player personnel role.
Smith previously worked with Billy High, Tennessee’s executive director of football management, at North Carolina. Additionally, Smith previously served as Georgia Southern’s general manager.
What does Ryan Smith’s hiring mean for Tennessee?
Tennessee isn’t exactly forthcoming about how their player personnel department (player acquisition) operates, so details can be scare.
One source told A to Z Sports that Smith, who graduated from Baylor in 2015, will likely oversee high school talent identification for Tennessee.
Tennessee, unlike many programs around the country, doesn’t have an official general manager.
High, however, is essentially the de facto general manager for the Vols (it may be a situation where Tennessee just chose a different title for him…again, UT isn’t very forthcoming on details, which is certainly their prerogative).
An industry source tells A to Z Sports that there still isn’t enough separation between the Tennessee coaching staff and NIL negotiations with players. Currently, it’s believed within the industry that Heupel has the role of being the head coach and the head of roster salary management, essentially like some NFL head coach/general manager combos. That setup can work, but it’s incredibly demanding on Heupel when you add in everything else that’s on his plate (play-calling, game planning, staff management, recruiting visits/phone calls, film, etc).
To be clear, this isn’t a criticism of Tennessee — everyone in college football is figuring out how to best navigate the NIL/transfer landscape — but it certainly seems like an area where the program can continue to be more efficient.
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