Tennessee football recycles another Butch Jones assistant in Willie Martinez
On the same day new Tennessee football head coach Josh Heupel introduced his entire offensive staff, the Vols made another move that was a nod to the Butch Jones era. Their second staff hire on the defensive side of the ball is a former Jones assistant.
John Brice of Football Scoop reported Wednesday night that UT is bringing Willie Martinez back to coach cornerbacks. Martinez, who has been on Heupel’s staff with the UCF Knights since 2018, was the secondary coach on Rocky Top from 2013 to 2016 under Jones. These two also worked together on Dick Flynn’s staff with the Central Michigan Chippewas in 1998 and 1999.
Two days earlier, Tennessee football hired Tim Banks to be defensive coordinator. Banks, who spent the past four years as the Penn State Nittany Lions co-defensive coordinator, was Jones’ defensive coordinator at CMU from 2007 to 2009 and with the Cincinnati Bearcats in 2010 and 2011. They also worked together on Jeff Pierce’s staff with the Ferris State Bulldogs in 1997.
We already wrote here about how Banks is a throwback to the Jones era. Well, with the addition of Martinez, Heupel is doubling down on that. In fact, with Banks set to coach the safeties, the secondary is a specific nod to the Jones era.
Martinez specifically generates mixed results when you look at the memories Vol fans had of him. There were some success, including the development of Cameron Sutton and Emmanuel Moseley, but the 2016 secondary was horrendous down the stretch and cost the Vols the SEC East.
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To be fair, Martinez was not on the 2017 team when everything collapsed. He also has a pretty impressive resume beyond the Vols, working under Mark Richt’s staff with the Georgia Bulldogs from 2001 to 2009 and under Bob Stoops’ staff with the Oklahoma Sooners in 2010 and 2011.
Simply put, Martinez has success beyond what happened in the second half of the 2016 Tennessee football season. Defensive philosophies in general had nothing to do with what got Jones fired anyway, as the historically bad offense in 2017 was what really led to the awful year.
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Still, these two moves lend themselves to the idea that the Vols made a mistake firing Jones, and that’s not something anybody should think. Just because they went maybe too far in the opposite direction with Jeremy Pruitt’s hire doesn’t mean that they should go back to another failed head coach. Again, overcorrecting can’t be the problem.
After leaving the Vols in 2017, Martinez spent a year on Luke Fickell’s staff with the Cincinnati Bearcats before joining UCF. Before heading to Rocky Top, he spent a year with the Auburn Tigers under Gene Chizik, the last year before Chizik got fired.
Beyond his Power Five experience and his experience working under Jones, Heupel and Fickell, Martinez also worked on Brian Kelly’s staff with the Grand Valley State Lakers in 1992 and 1993. He played for the Miami Hurricanes Howard Schnellenberger and Jimmy Johnson from 1981 to 1984 and served as a grad assistant there in 1985 and 1986.
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Other stops for Martinez include Mike DeBord’s staff at CMU in 2000, Flynn’s staff at CMU before Jones arrived in 1994, Ryan Rasnick’s staff with the Eastern Michigan Eagles in 1997 and Gene McDowell’s staff with UCF in 1995 and 1996. Tennessee football will join CMU and UCF as schools where he gets a second stint.