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Tennessee football: Ranking Vols 6 offseason staff changes for 2019

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 08: Head coach Jeremy Pruitt of the Tennessee Volunteers brings his team onto the field prior to a game against the East Tennessee State University Buccaneers at Neyland Stadium on September 8, 2018 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennesee won the game 59-3. (Photo by Donald Page/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 08: Head coach Jeremy Pruitt of the Tennessee Volunteers brings his team onto the field prior to a game against the East Tennessee State University Buccaneers at Neyland Stadium on September 8, 2018 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennesee won the game 59-3. (Photo by Donald Page/Getty Images) /
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5. Moving Kevin Sherrer to special teams coordinator and Derrick Ansley to defensive coordinator

Tennessee football moving Kevin Sherrer to special teams coordinator and Derrick Ansley to defensive coordinator has more impact than we initially thought. Chris Rumph is already a co-defensive coordinator, and Jeremy Pruitt called the plays anyway last year. So moving Sherrer specifically has no impact.

However, putting Ansley in the position to call the plays changes everything. We put this move ahead of the move to replace Terry Fair and Charles Kelly because there is an off-field negative impact in terms of optics when it comes to replacing Fair.

Overall, though, nothing is likely to change. Even with Ansley calling the plays, does anybody not believe that Pruitt is going to be aggressive and have the final say in what happens? It’s hard to believe he won’t override Ansley whenever he needs to.

There is a bit of a concern with Sherrer having no experience as a special teams coordinator. But coaching there was sub-par anyway last year given how many times the Vols failed to recover surprise onside kicks. Maybe Sherrer could fix some of those issues. Ansley, meanwhile, has some experience in a role as defensive coordinator, serving as co-defensive coordinator for the Kentucky Wildcats under Mark Stoops in 2015.

Combining that with his experience in the NFL and familiarity with Pruitt make this a good hire overall, but the defensive coordinator move is no big deal. As a result, this change is nothing to really pay attention to. The position changes are much bigger deals, and those are the things we need to be focusing on. That’s especially true on offense, which is where we go next.

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