Tennessee Vols: The best way for Jeremy Pruitt to work out coaching staff assignments
With safeties/special teams coach Charles Kelly heading to Alabama, the Tennessee Vols once again have ten assistant coaches. But the staff responsibilities aren't exactly clear. Tennessee still hasn't officially announced which positions new additions Jim Chaney and Tee Martin will coach. As of now, it doesn't look like anyone else is leaving Jeremy Pruitt's staff, […]
With safeties/special teams coach Charles Kelly heading to Alabama, the Tennessee Vols once again have ten assistant coaches.
But the staff responsibilities aren't exactly clear. Tennessee still hasn't officially announced which positions new additions Jim Chaney and Tee Martin will coach.
As of now, it doesn't look like anyone else is leaving Jeremy Pruitt's staff, which means he's going to have to make a few changes.
Here are the current coaching responsibilities.
- Jim Chaney — Offensive coordinator/unknown
- Tee Martin — Unknown
- David Johnson — Wide receivers
- Chris Weinke — Running backs
- Brian Niedermeyer — Tight ends
- Will Friend — Offensive line
- Kevin Sherrer — Defensive coordinator/inside linebackers
- Chris Rumph — Co-defensive coordinator/outside linebackers
- Tracy Rocker — Defensive line
- Terry Fair — Cornerbacks
As you can see, the only vacant coaching spot is at safeties/special teams.
There's been some rumblings that David Johnson has told recruits he might be moving to running backs next season. That would be a logical move, considering he coached running backs when he was at Tulane. That would mean Tee Martin would coach wide receivers, as most folks expected.
But then what about Chris Weinke?
If I were Pruitt, I would move Weinke to tight ends and Brian Niedermeyer to safeties. Niedermeyer has experience coaching on the defensive side of the ball (he actually has more defensive experience than offensive experience), but most of his time on defense has been spent coaching linebackers. But with Pruitt essentially coaching the secondary, I think Niedermeyer would be fine coaching safeties (he's been with Pruitt since their time at Georgia, so the two can clearly work well together).
That still leaves special teams. Johnson worked with returners at Millsaps College nearly a year ago. Maybe Pruitt could split up the responsibilities among a couple of coaches. I'd probably give Weinke the "special teams coordinator" title for the time being.
Here's how I think the staff should look in 2019 under Pruitt.
- Jim Chaney — Offensive coordinator/quarterbacks
- Tee Martin — Wide receivers
- David Johnson — Running backs
- Chris Weinke — Tight ends/special teams
- Will Friend — Offensive line
- Kevin Sherrer — Defensive coordinator/inside linebackers
- Chris Rumph — Co-defensive coordinator/outside linebackers
- Tracy Rocker — Defensive line
- Brian Niedermeyer — safeties
- Terry Fair — Cornerbacks
That's obviously a lot of staff movement with several guys coaching new positions. But I think this staff layout could work for the Vols.
Tennessee has plenty of quality coaches. The issue in front of Pruitt, making all these coaches fit together, is certainly a good problem for the Vols to have.
Featured image via eff Blake-USA TODAY Sports
