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

4. Familiarity with the system

This is another quality that other coaches bring to the system, in particular new outside linebackers coach Shelton Felton. Joe Osovet is familiar with Jeremy Pruitt, and he has worked with Pruitt and Jim Chaney over the past two years in an off-field role. This past year, he was UT’s Director of Football Programming.

As a result, Osovet is familiar with everything Tennessee football’s offense is running. We’re going to get into the unique experiences he brings to the table in a few more of these slides, but what’s crucial is the fact that he won’t clash with the coaches when he does bring those experiences. After all, Pruitt, Chaney and the rest of the staff know what he’s about.

Over the past two years, it’s pretty clear that Osovet helped the staff from an X’s and O’s perspective, and he was just waiting to be promoted. It’s likely that Pruitt relied more heavily on him than he usually does for off-field coaches. Now that he’s finally on the field and coaching a position, there shouldn’t be any learning curve, and that’s a big deal.

UT needs to immediately push forward given the state of the program. The Vols are on the verge of turning a major corner back into a powerhouse, and the last thing they need is a coach who could slow them down. Osovet’s familiarity with Rocky Top will help him recruit immediately, and his familiarity with Pruitt and Chaney will help with chemistry more quickly than usual.