December has proven to be an extremely busy month for Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel.

Tennessee only plays one game this month — against Clemson in the Orange Bowl on December 30 — but there are plenty of other tasks that are occupying Heupel's time right now.

There's roster management — figuring out who's staying and who's leaving. There's recruiting. And then there's the NCAA transfer portal. Heupel and his staff are having to sift through the seemingly endless amount of players in the portal to see who could legitimately help Tennessee in 2023.

On top of the recruiting/transfer portal craziness, there's also bowl game prep for the aforementioned matchup against Clemson. Heupel has to plan out practices and dissect Clemson's film while dealing with all of the roster management.

And finally, there's the open spot on the coaching staff that Heupel has to fill.

Alex Golesh, who served as Tennessee's offensive coordinator/tight ends coach for the last two seasons, recently accepted an offer to become the new head coach at USF.

This is really good stuff: Alex Golesh talking about his relationship with Josh Heupel and how the playcalling between them worked pic.twitter.com/2vhSKeyYtc

— zach ragan (@zachTNT) December 7, 2022

There hasn't been much movement on a potential staff hire to replace Golesh — recruiting and the portal have Heupel's attention at the moment. But the vacant on-field coaching role won't go unfilled for long.

I'm expecting Heupel to move quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle into the offensive coordinator role. Halzle has been with Heupel for well over a decade. And he was in the booth for the last two seasons beside Golesh. For continuity purposes, he'd be the best choice to slide into that role.

If that's the move that Heupel makes, he'll still need to hire a tight ends coach.

And there's a perfect option available that has a strong connection to Heupel.

Seth Littrell was recently fired as the North Texas head coach. Littrell was the head coach at North Texas for seven seasons and went 44-44 during that time.

Littrell was Heupel's teammate at Oklahoma for two seasons. Heupel and Littrell were both team captains on the 2000 Sooners team that won the national championship.

Heupel has never worked on a coaching staff with Littrell, but the two are obviously familiar with each other and their coaching roots are similar (Littrell worked under Mike Leach for four seasons at Texas Tech).

Littrell has extensive experience as a tight ends coach and offensive coordinator. He could join the Vols' staff and sit beside Halzle in the booth to help with playcalling (with an offense that moves this fast, it's advantageous to have someone in the booth that can stay a couple of plays ahead).

If Littrell wants to take a step back and return to being a position coach for a couple of years, Tennessee would be his best bet. The rise of Golesh showed plenty of coaches across the country that serving on Heupel's staff in Knoxville can quickly lead to bigger jobs. I'm sure Littrell wouldn't mind coaching in front of the wildest group of fans in the SEC while also restrengthening his resumé.

Featured image via Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports