Former Vols assistant hired to on-field staff at USF by Alex Golesh

A former Tennessee Vols assistant is joining former UT offensive coordinator Alex Golesh's inaugural staff at USF. According to ESPN's Pete Thamel, Matt Merritt is joining Golesh's staff as his running backs coach/run game coordinator/associate head coach. Merritt, who served as Georgia Southern's running backs coach under Clay Helton in 2022, was a senior offensive […]

Zach Ragan — Tennessee Volunteers News Writer

Dec 14, 2022 6:26 PM EST

A former Tennessee Vols assistant is joining former UT offensive coordinator Alex Golesh's inaugural staff at USF.

According to ESPN's Pete Thamel, Matt Merritt is joining Golesh's staff as his running backs coach/run game coordinator/associate head coach.

Merritt, who served as Georgia Southern's running backs coach under Clay Helton in 2022, was a senior offensive analyst at Tennessee in 2021. He had actually been hired as a running backs coach at UCF before Josh Heupel left Orlando to replace Jeremy Pruitt at Tennessee.

Sources: Georgia Southern RB coach Matt Merritt has accepted a job at USF. Merritt will be the USF associate HC/run game coordinator and RB coach. He worked with Alex Golesh at Tennessee prior to Georgia Southern as a senior analyst. Coached RBs at James Madison and Elon.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) December 14, 2022

Merritt will be a name to watch if/when the Vols need an offensive assistant in the future (Merritt has coached running backs and special teams throughout his career). He already has experience in Heupel's system and he's about to get even more experience in it, albeit in Golesh's version.

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