Former Tennessee Vols assistant turned NFL head coach is considered to be on the hot seat
A former Tennessee Vols assistant turned NFL head coach is considered to be on the hot seat. Los Angeles Chargers head coach Brandon Staley was listed by CBS Sports this week at the No. 1 spot in their hot seat rankings. From CBS Sports: The Chargers have a legitimate franchise quarterback, but haven't been able […]
A former Tennessee Vols assistant turned NFL head coach is considered to be on the hot seat.
Los Angeles Chargers head coach Brandon Staley was listed by CBS Sports this week at the No. 1 spot in their hot seat rankings.
From CBS Sports: The Chargers have a legitimate franchise quarterback, but haven't been able to accomplish anything with him. I'm not here to argue Justin Herbert's "clutchness" or lack thereof, but the fact is he's just never had a defense — despite his head coach being hired for his defensive background. Sunday's loss to the Lions was the perfect example of a "Justin Herbert game." He threw four touchdowns, one interception, put up 38 total points … yet still lost. The Chargers have scored 1,502 points in Herbert's 59 career starts, and allowed exactly 1,502 points. The Chargers are 1-3 when scoring at least 30 points since the start of last postseason. To put that in perspective, the rest of the NFL is 64-9. Parting ways with Staley would have made sense after last year's historic loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the playoffs. L.A. gave him another shot, and it doesn't feel like things are getting any better.
Staley was a graduate assistant at Tennessee under Derek Dooley in 2012. And his defensive coordinator in Los Angeles, Derrick Ansley, was also on staff at Tennessee in 2012 (Ansley was the cornerbacks coach in 2012…he was later the Vols' defensive coordinator in 2019 and 2020 under Jeremy Pruitt).
While Staley wasn't at Tennessee for long, he actually played a key role in the recruitment of one the Vols' most exciting players in program history.
Staley was the defensive coordinator at Hutchinson Community College when Tennessee was recruiting wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson (who attended Hutchinson at the time).
Darin Hinshaw, who was the Vols' wide receivers coach at the time, was friends with Staley.
And Staley told Hinshaw that Patterson was the real deal.
From The Athletic: Patterson went to Hutchinson Junior College out of Rock Hill’s Northwestern High School, and that’s where he was when Tennessee wide receivers coach Darin Hinshaw first saw him on film while scouting another Hutchinson player. Hinshaw immediately called a friend on Hutchinson’s staff, Brandon Staley, who was Hutchinson’s defensive coordinator at the time and is now the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers.
“I said, ‘Who is this guy?’” said Hinshaw, now an offensive analyst at UCF. “He said, ‘Oh, that’s CP. He’s a freak.’ He said, ‘Man, I’m telling you, you want to see this guy in person.’”
Staley was hired as a graduate assistant the same offseason that Patterson signed with Tennessee. Hutchinson linebacker De'Vondre Campbell, a future NFL All-Pro, also committed to the Vols that offseason, but he decommitted after Dooley was fired and Butch Jones was hired to lead UT in late 2012.
After the 2012 season, Staley was hired as the defensive coordinator at John Carroll.
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