Tennessee football: 5 reasons for concern over Vols hiring OC Jim Chaney

5. There’s not a large body of work of Jim Chaney having free reign in the SEC.

This one may be a bit confusing, and we have it No. 5 because it could go either way. Ever since Jim Chaney has returned to the college game in 2009, he has largely been micromanaged. Even that first year with Tennessee football, Lane Kiffin was the real offensive coordinator.

The next three years, Derek Dooley did give him more free reign. But it’s also well-documented that Dooley is a micromanager, and his forte and focus is on offense. So even then, Chaney was being micromanaged a bit.

With the Arkansas Razorbacks, Bret Bielema was forcing his power running game on Chaney, so we don’t know how much of that was fully him. And then it’s become well-documented that Kirby Smart micromanaged him and the whole team the last three years with the Georgia Bulldogs.

So that leaves his one year with the Pittsburgh Panthers under Pat Narduzzi and his one game as head coach of the Vols against the Kentucky Wildcats as the only true bodies of work we have for him since coming back to college. Pitt isn’t an SEC team, and that UK team went 2-10. That means Chaney gets little credit for such a win.

In fact, this year, Chaney lost his quarterback coaching duties and got a co-offensive coordinator named in James Coley. That also happens to be the most successful offensive season he had with the Dawgs.

This makes Chaney’s best body of work his time with the Purdue Boilermakers. And that was a successful period, as were some of his years in his return to college. So this could end up being a good thing for him and the Vols because we know Jeremy Pruitt will focus on defense and turn the offense completely over to Chaney. But it all does come with a question of proven success.