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Tennessee football: Five potential concerns over Shelton Felton as Vols OLB coach

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 15: A view of the outside of Neyland Stadium before a game between the Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers on September 15, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 15: A view of the outside of Neyland Stadium before a game between the Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers on September 15, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images
Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images /

4. Just came from 0-12 Akron Zips

With experience coaching under Tom Arth while at UT Chattanooga, Shelton Felton followed the former Mocs head coach to the Akron Zips, leaving his role as Tennessee football’s quality control coach. He coached outside linebackers and defensive ends on Arth’s staff this past year. The results, well, were beyond disastrous, and they are concerning.

Jeremy Pruitt is bringing in an assistant coach who was just part of an 0-12 stint. Sorry, but nothing is redeeming about going 0-12. Maybe it was more about Arth than it was Felton. However, an entire staff deserves blame when something like this happens. Many people have the theory that teams should immediately clean house if they go winless in a season.

Now, it’s fair to say that the offense was historically bad, which Felton doesn’t coach. After all, they did go four straight games without a touchdown on the year. It was bad all the way around, and it’s not like they were allowing teams to score 40 points on a regular basis. In fact, they only let teams break 40 five times, meaning it was all about the offense.

None of that changes the fact that Felton was part of an 0-12 MAC staff. You have to question what Pruitt was thinking to hire a guy fresh off that background to a certain degree, even if he brings lots of other positive traits to the table. This is always something everybody tries to avoid on their legacy, and Felton is now stuck with it.

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