Tennessee football: See where each assistant recruits in-state

Given the nature of the state, there’s always been mixed results with Tennessee football recruiting locally. The Vols can’t just win by building a fence around them like schools can do in Georgia, Alabama, Florida and Louisiana. They have to go nationally.

As a result, different coaches have different philosophies on recruiting the state. In Josh Heupel’s case, though, there is a serious long-term focus on keeping the top talent at home, and his handling of assistants’ recruiting responsibilities shows that.

A graphic posted on Monday shows that every Tennessee football staff member is responsible for at least one part of the state. Certain major places have two coaches recruiting that area, and coaches often times recruit a couple of areas. The graphic was posted by offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Alex Golesh.

Golesh himself is responsible specifically for Nashville. He and defensive line coach Rodney Garner both handle that area. To be fair, Garner may deserve more responsibilities given his track record as a recruiter, but him focusing on Nashville can certainly lock up that area. Maybe this is because Garner focuses more nationally anyway.

Down in Memphis, running backs coach Jerry Mack and defensive coordinator Tim Banks are the primary recruiters. Mack has a huge advantage, as he was born in Memphis and played football at Whitehaven High School, where three four-star defenders in the Vols’ 2020 class came from: Tamarion McDonald, Bryson Eason and Martavius French.

Banks being there makes sure that one of UT’s coordinators is responsible for each of the two major metro areas in the state. In addition to Memphis, though, Banks has another responsibility, and that’s helping to recruit the East and Middle Tennessee regions outside of Nashville.

Joining Banks in recruiting this region are secondary coach Willie Martinez and linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary. Both of them exclusively recruit that region, and it does include the Chattanooga and Murfreesboro areas.

Offensive line coach Glen Elarbee and outside linebackers and special teams coach Mike Ekeler are responsible for the purely East Tennessee portion of the state. This includes the Tri-Cities region of Johnson City, Kingsport and Bristol.

The West Tennessee region outside of Memphis, which encompasses the Jackson area, is targeted by wide receivers coach Kodi Burns and quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle. Some of the best talent in school history came out of Jackson, including Al Wilson and Trey Smith, so this is a key area.

Altogether, Banks probably has the most responsibilities, having to recruit two spots and one of them being a giant metro area. Still, Tennessee football is clearly serious about closing off the state altogether with this graphic. The NCAA investigations make it hard to do that for their 2022 class, but maybe that’ll start to pay off in a year.