Tennessee football: Ranking all 10 assistant coaches on Vols 2019 staff
We have been harshly critical of Jeremy Pruitt parting ways with a Tennessee football legend to bring on a guy like Derrick Ansley. But that has nothing to do with Ansley specifically. It’s only about letting go of Fair when he did a pretty good job last year, producing a freshman All-American and a decent pass defense with all new cornerbacks.
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Ansley will replace Fair and Charles Kelly, who were the cornerbacks and safeties coaches respectively. And he also replaces Jeremy Pruitt as the play-caller on defense. So there is nobody taking on more new roles for this staff than Ansley, and he’s a first-year guy.
Given all of that, how could he be so high on this list? Well, his track record is all you need to look at. Ansley has been an elite defensive backs coach for a while. He held that role for Pruitt, Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide in 2016 and 2017.
On top of coaching elite pass defenses both years, Ansley gained NFL experience with the Oakland Raiders last year. And he generated a ton of improvement coaching that secondary for Jon Gruden, increasing the team’s interception total from 5 to 14 and their passes defended from 56 to 73.
Even in his coordinating experience, Ansley was co-defensive coordinator for the Kentucky Wildcats and Mark Stoops in 2015. That year, UK was second in the SEC with 23 forced turnovers, and they had a school-record six defensive touchdowns. Simply put, Ansley has a track record of production in all the roles he’s about to hold on Rocky Top. His lack of experience as the head defensive coordinator is the only reason he’s not No. 1 on this list.