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Tennessee football: Ranking all 28 offseason coaching changes by impact on Vols

By Caleb Calhoun

Tennessee Herd Coach Josh Heupel at the 2021 Music City Bowl NCAA college football game at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tenn. on Thursday, Dec. 30, 2021.Kns Tennessee Purdue
Tennessee Herd Coach Josh Heupel at the 2021 Music City Bowl NCAA college football game at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tenn. on Thursday, Dec. 30, 2021.Kns Tennessee Purdue /
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Texas Tech Red Raiders Head Coach Sonny Cumbie celebrates their 34-7 win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs at the AutoZone Liberty Bowl at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium on Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2021.Jrca7082
Texas Tech Red Raiders Head Coach Sonny Cumbie celebrates their 34-7 win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs at the AutoZone Liberty Bowl at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium on Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2021.Jrca7082 /

Pick Analysis. Skip Holtz. Sonny Cumbie. 19. player. Scouting Report. Louisiana Tech Bulldogs. 2119

Previous role: Interim head coach, Texas Tech Red Raiders

(2021)

Coaches leaving Power Five programs are going to have an effect on Tennessee football. As already mentioned, Group of Five programs in SEC country hiring coaches will also have an effect on the Vols. Despite the two not being directly connected, that’s the case here.

Sonny Cumbie started last year as the Texas Tech Red Raiders’ offensive coordinator, where he was an assistant fro 2009 to 2013. From 2014 to 2020, though, he was the co-offensive coordinator for the TCU Horned Frogs under Gary Patterson, so his roots are Big 12 country.

Anyway, Cumbie ended up finishing this past year as the team’s interim head coach due to Matt Wells being fired, and he went 2-3. Now, the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs have hired him. Texas Tech was probably going to move on from him anyway, so it’s not a direct connection when it comes to this hire, but he did leave a Power Five job for a job in SEC country.

Cumbie replaces Skip Holtz, who was fired after nine seasons, a 64-50 record and three division titles due to a 3-9 campaign in 2021. We’re still looking at coaches unlikely to have too much of an impact on the Vols, but what’s interesting, as we’ll get to later, is that lots of Louisiana schools clearly changed coaches this year.

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