It’s not the 1990s anymore. If you’re having success, you’re going to lose staff members. Tennessee football has made a habit out of losing coordinators over the past 10 years, but they have almost all been lateral moves, a sign the program was coming apart.
For instance, Derek Dooley lost Justin Wilcox to the Washington Huskies after 2011 and when Butch Jones lost Mike DeBord to the Indiana Hoosiers after 2016, those were issues. However, losing a coordinator to a head coaching job is inevitable if they do a good job.
As a result, the news of Tennessee football offensive coordinator Alex Golesh accepting the head coaching job with the South Florida Bulls should come as no surprise. Brett McMurphy of Action Network tweeted out the report Saturday night.
Tennessee offensive coordinator Alex Golesh has accepted an offer to be South Florida’s coach, sources told @ActionNetworkHQ. With the 38-year old Golesh, Tennessee led nation in total & scoring offense this season
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) December 4, 2022
Golesh has led the Vols to the No. 1 scoring offense this year and a top 10 scoring offense each of the past two years he has served under Josh Heupel. Of course he is going to get a job somewhere else with a resume like that. Not getting one would be a red flag.
If Heupel truly is the right leader of a major program like UT, then this loss shouldn’t be a problem. It should be the first in a long line of coordinators he’s going to lose to head coaching jobs during his tenure with Tennessee football.
Look at Nick Saban. He has former coordinators as head coach of three different SEC schools and another as head coach of an NFL team. In just the last five years, he has lost four coordinators to head coaching jobs, one at the expense of the Vols in Jeremy Pruitt.
The others are Mike Locksley, with the Maryland Terrapins, Steve Sarkisian with the Texas Longhorns and Brian Daboll, who is now leading the New York Giants. Lane Kiffin of the Ole Miss Rebels and Kirby Smart of the Georgia Bulldogs are within the past decade. Jimbo Fisher, for now, is still with the Texas A&M Aggies.
Losing all of those coordinators hasn’t stopped Saban from winning at a high level. Again, it’s to be expected. Heupel himself had this happen, as he lost Jeff Lebby from UCF to Ole Miss because of the success he was having there. That’s why he brought on Golesh in the first place.
Danny White didn’t hire Heupel because of the staff he could bring. Some hires have been made for that in the past, to be fair. Ed Orgeron’s national championship season with the LSU Tigers was because he had a great staff coaching elite talent.
However, Heupel was hired because of Heupel. As a result, he should be trusted to find the right guy. Staff members leaving for head coaching jobs this early into his tenure is a testament to the success Tennessee football having. Even Saban never lost a coordinator to a head coaching job this early into his tenure at any school.