Tennessee football: Five potential concerns over Vols hiring DL coach Jimmy Brumbaugh

2. Was reportedly fired by Doug Marrone at Syracuse in 2011

Let’s just call it out. Tennessee football has a defensive line coach and co-defensive coordinator who was fired back in 2011, when he was just coaching defensive tackles at a much lesser school in a much lesser conference.

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Yes, Jimmy Brumbaugh was coaching the Syracuse Orange in 2011, and that was his second there year, serving under Doug Marrone’s staff. Not only was he in a much lesser conference than the SEC, he wasn’t even in the ACC. At the time, Syracuse was still in the Big East, and Brumbaugh got fired one year after being demoted from defensive line to just defensive tackles.

That year, the Orange went 5-7 and failed to make a bowl game. After Brumbaugh was fired, which is what sent him to Last Chance U to begin with for a year before joining Mark Stoops’ staff on the Kentucky Wildcats, Syracuse improved to 8-5 and shared a Big East Championship title in 2012. That’s a bit of a concern.

Now, to be fair, Brumbaugh has gained a lot more experience since then. After all, he had only worked for Marrone and Derek Dooley at the FBS level at that point as a position coach while cutting his teeth in the coaching ranks. So he’s clearly built up a resume since then.

That doesn’t change the fact, though, that Brumbaugh was fired. And he was fired from a lesser role at a lesser school in a lesser conference. You always have to be concerned about something like that, even if it is nearly a decade later.