Tennessee football: 5 concerns with Vols revamped staff heading into 2019

4. More schematic changes

The changes aren’t as bad as they were last year. Tennessee football is maintaining a pro-style offense and a 3-4 defense. However, with new coordinators on offense and defense, there are still going to be even more changes. And this program has had enough of those.

On offense, the Vols will be playing for their fourth offensive coordinator in four years. It’s also a third different philosophy, even if they are maintaining the pro style from last year. While Tyson Helton focused more on timing and motion on the outside, Chaney focuses more on power and getting the ball to his best players.

Derrick Ansley is likely to be very similar to Jeremy Pruitt on defense. That’s probably not as much of a concern, but Ansley will likely change some things up slightly with what he learned in the pros. So there’s still likely to be a bit of a learning curve. He is UT’s fourth defensive coordinator in five years dating back to Jon Jancek in 2015.

Simply put, there is a lot of change going on with Rocky Top, and it’s hard to continue doing this. The program is still rebuilding, and a second year with a learning curve could set back the rebuild. It’s certainly something Pruitt needs to be aware of, and he needs to make sure the coaches keep things much more simple this year.

Transitions through different head coaches over the past decade have been bad enough. Constantly changing coordinators, though, can really mess up the development of a program, and that’s another concern for this year.