Tennessee football: Five positives from Vols hiring LB coach Shelton Felton

5. Experience as a head coach and a defensive coordinator

It’s only at the high school level. Let’s be clear about that. However, head coaching and coordinating experience is always a valuable commodity, and Shelton Felton did both when he was coaching high school ball for years. If you want us to be a little more honest, we’ll just stick with the head coaching part.

While that may seem small, it’s worth noting that Jeremy Pruitt didn’t have any head coaching experience, even in high school, before he took over the Tennessee football program. So Felton is a major asset for the Vols with this experience. He joins Chris Weinke, Jim Chaney and Joe Osovet as the only guys on staff with any head coaching experience.

Osovet did it in the junior college ranks. Chaney did it as an interim head coach with the Vols. Felton and Weinke both did it in the high school ranks. Given how limited all of that experience is, there’s no way anybody can deny the fact that Felton brings a unique perspective lots of other coaches on Pruitt’s staff don’t have right now, and that matters a lot.

In fact, on the defensive side of the ball, Felton is the only guy with head coaching experience. Despite being at a lower level, that gives him a unique insight in working with Pruitt on how to lead the players. Those things do come into play at times, and Pruitt at least now has that on both sides of the ball.