Tennessee football: Five positives from Vols promoting Joe Osovet to TE coach

5. Head coaching experience

Shelton Felton, Chris Weinke and Jim Chaney are the only other coaches on the staff with any head coaching experience. We already mentioned Felton, the new outside linebackers coach, and what he brings to the table as a guy who once coached high school ball. However, Felton and Weinke both only have experience at the high school level.

Meanwhile, Chaney’s only head coaching experience is serving as interim head coach, ironically for Tennessee football back in 2012 for one week after Derek Dooley was fired. Joe Osovet, meanwhile, has experience as a head coach at Nassau Community College from 2013 to 2015 and at ASA college in 2016 and 2017.

Both of those are junior colleges in New York. As a result, Osovet is the only assistant on the staff with any experience as a full-time head coach at the college level. That gives Jeremy Pruitt a very necessary person to rely on. He may just be coaching tight ends, but he can also help run things when Pruitt is away because he knows what it takes to actually be a head coach.

Although it may be just in the junior college level, Osovet has experience leading talent that is out of high school and looking to make it to a higher level. As a result, there’s no denying that his experience is a valuable asset, and it’s probably more valuable head coaching experience than what anybody else brings to the table on Pruitt’s staff. That has to mean something.