Jeremy Pruitt has four new position coaches for Tennessee football. Here is an updated ranking of all on-field Volunteers staff members this year.
Five positions have new coaches for Tennessee football heading into 2020. Three newcomers arrived, one off-field assistant was promoted, and an on-field assistant was moved to the other side of the ball.
This was all done to offset the departures of running backs coach David Johnson, defensive line coach Tracy Rocker, outside linebackers coach Chris Rumph and inside linebackers coach Kevin Sherrer, who also served as special teams coordinator. So there were tons of changes, although the offensive and defensive coordinators stayed the same.
As a result of all these changes, only one position now has the same coach that it had when Jeremy Pruitt first took over Tennessee football, and only three members from his original staff are still on his staff in an on-field role. To be fair, all but three players had worked under him in some capacity since he has arrived on Rocky Top before this year.
Simply put, the transitions can be significant or minimal depending on how you view them. But it has certainly changed how we evaluate the staff. Once again, we have to give an updated ranking of all the staff members on the Vols.
These rankings are based on a few things. Yes, recent track record in coaching their specific position means the most. However, success on the recruiting front is also a big deal. We are only evaluating people in their roles, but everybody’s role involves recruiting.
Nobody has a record of failure on here, but some have had a much greater level of success, and it’s clear that some coaches are about to have a chance to build their resume. But this ranking is solely based on what they have done at this level, in their role so far.
We’ll take into account success in related areas, though, particularly from an X’s and O’s standpoint, if they are significant enough. That could end up playing a big role in these rankings. Knowing that, let’s go ahead and evaluate this staff. This is our ranking of Tennessee football’s 10 assistant coaches heading into Pruitt’s third season.