Tennessee Football: Vols Coaching Staff is Very Racially Diverse

By Caleb Calhoun | Mar 1, 2017

Nov 26, 2016; Nashville, TN, USA; Tennessee head coach Butch Jones during the second half at Vanderbilt Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Amy Smotherman Burgess/Knoxville News Sentinel via USA TODAY NETWORK /

With all the Tennessee football staff changes, Butch Jones has a very diverse team now. Half the coaches are African American, and another is Hispanic.

Only four Tennessee football assistant coaches from last year’s staff are still on the team. But the Vols’ staff changes has brought about arguably the most diverse coaching team in school history.

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With the reports that Butch Jones is set to replace Zach Azzanni with Kevin Beard as wide receivers coach, the majority of Vols assistants are now African American.

Larry Scott is the first black offensive or defensive coordinator in school history. Defensive backs coach Charlton Warren has taken on the added role as special teams coordinator.

As a result, two of the Vols’ three coordinators are black.

Meanwhile, Tommy Thigpen and Robert Gillespie are still on staff, both of whom are African American, meaning that five of the nine Tennessee football assistant coaches are black.

Then comes Mike Canales, the Vols’ quarterbacks coach. Canales is Hispanic, as his family has roots in Mexico and he grew up speaking Spanish, according to an article Tampa Bay Times reporter Greg Auman wrote in 2007, when it was the St. Petersburg Times.

So of the nine Tennessee football assistant coaches, five are black, one is Hispanic, and the other three are white: Bob Shoop, Walt Wells, and Brady Hoke.

Now the other specialist roles are less diverse. Administrative support staff Steve Stripling, Mike Vollmar, and Bob Welton are all white.

And Jones brought in Tony Sorrentino as the offensive quality control coach, according to Volquest.

Also, though, according to another Volquest report, Jones added Gerald Brown as an offensive analyst, another African American coach.

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So now, with 15 members dealing with the Tennessee football staff directly, including Jones, six are African American, one is Hispanic, and eight are white.

That means that nearly half the coaches are minorities, and a majority of the staff are minorities.

If you know the history of Tennessee football, that’s something to be incredibly proud of.

It was only seven years ago when Mike Hamilton wrongly passed over Gerald Brown’s brother, Kippy Brown, for the Tennessee football head coaching job after Lane Kiffin’s departure.

Not only did Mike Hamilton pass over Brown for head coach, but he made the decision to hire Derek Dooley before even interviewing Brown. When he did interview Brown, it was a token interview. Hamilton handled that entire situation terribly.

And he horribly mistreated a respected Tennessee football coach with longtime ties to the Vols.

Of course, Dooley’s failure as a football coach made it worse.

Let’s not forget that Hamilton not only chose Dooley, a coach with a losing record at Louisiana Tech, over Brown. He also chose Dooley over Kevin Sumlin, who had been winning big at Houston and was much more qualified for the job.

That was a very dark moment in Tennessee football history, and the failure on the field only made it darker.

Now, the head coach is still white. But the university has a completely different culture. Remember, Butch Jones didn’t get the job until after Charlie Strong, a black coach, turned down the offer first.

And Jones has kept a very diverse staff since he’s been in Knoxville.

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Now, after a series of staff changes this offseason, it is more racially diverse than ever. Whether or not Jones works out remains to be seen.

But this is something for him and the entire university to be proud of.

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