Jason Witten won’t be getting free dinners in Knoxville after Vols fans hear him explain why he joined Oklahoma’s coaching staff
The Tennessee Vols legend joined the Oklahoma Sooners’ coaching staff earlier this year.
Tennessee Vols legend Jason Witten will be back on a college football sideline in 2026, but he won’t be wearing orange and white.
Witten, a former Vols tight end who spent the majority of his NFL career with the Dallas Cowboys, joined the Oklahoma Sooners’ coaching staff earlier this year (and his son, 2027 five-star linebacker Cooper Witten, committed to OU shortly after).
The Tennessee native met with reporters on Monday and he explained why Oklahoma was the right spot for him.
“Simply put, it’s the Oklahoma Sooners,” said Witten. “There’s not another program with more tradition and success over the years. There are some great programs in this league.”
“I’ve always just admired and respected this program over the course of my pro football career [with] a number of teammates coming from Oklahoma,” added Witten. “And all of them were the right type of teammates, the right type of people, and phenomenal football players that love the game. And so that’s what I wanted to be a part of — I wanted to go coach ball and pour into them all the things I just said….What a great opportunity and platform for me to be able to do it here.”
Those are fairly typical things that all assistant coaches say after joining a new coaching staff — even if they played elsewhere at a prominent program. Still, Witten saying that there’s no program more tradition-rich than Oklahoma probably won’t go over well with Vols fans, who cheer for one of the most tradition-rich schools in the sport.
Phillip Fulmer thinks Jason Witten will be a head coach one day
Ultimately, coaching at Oklahoma was an opportunity that Witten couldn’t pass up — especially if he wants to be a big-time head coach one day.
And Phillip Fulmer, who coached Witten at Tennessee, definitely thinks the former Vol will eventually be a head coach.
“When I coached Jason, I saw a great person who wanted to learn everything as quickly as he could. I think that has never left him,” said Fulmer to On3’s Sooner Scoop. “He really wants to listen and learn, and he knows his responsibilities: relationships on campus, the academic side, and probably more than anything, the recruiting side, because he has a great personality and is a super, super person. Those things will matter to him. At the end of the day, coaching is a lot about relationships and a lot of effort. He’ll do both of those things really well.”
“I don’t think there’s any question that he’ll be a head coach,” added Fulmer.
Witten is always going to be a beloved player in Knoxville — he’s undoubtedly a VFL. But as long as he’s wearing crimson and cream, he may have to pay for his own dinners when he visits Rocky Top.
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