Tennessee may have just suffered a significant loss to the staff right before the transfer portal opens up in January.
The Vols have not had much staff movement this offseason, despite an 8-4 2025. The big move was Josh Heupel moving on from defensive coordinator Tim Bnaks and replacing him with Penn State's Jim Knowles. But besides that, there haven't been any major staff moves.
CBS Sports' Matt Zenitz is reporting that Missouri is expected to hire director of player personnel Jake Breske away from Tennessee to work as the chief recruiting officer on the Tigers' support staff.
Missouri is expected to hire Tennessee director of player personnel Jake Breske in a lead front office capacity, sources tell @CBSSports.
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) December 19, 2025
Has worked for the Vols the last five seasons. pic.twitter.com/Tk6dLTocaB
Tennessee losses director of player personnel Jake Breske
This one hurts, especially since the player personnel department plays a large role when it comes to the transfer portal, which is only two weeks away. After all, Breske has been at Tennessee for the last five years, doing some very good things for the Vols. He helped Josh Heupel and staff land their best class since Heupel arrived in Knoxville, just a few weeks ago.
Breske was also noted to be a big part of helping secure the 2021 class when he was only on the job for a few months. On the flip side, Breske was the director of recruiting and worked at Missouri for five years before coming to Tennessee, so it's not a huge surprise he would want to go back to Columbia.
The new role for Breske, chief recruiting officer, is primarily focused on talent evaluation and recruiting strategy.
The good news is that Zenitz also reported that Tennessee added to the player personnel department, adding Ryan Smith from Auburn to the staff.
Tennessee is expected to hire Ryan Smith in a player personnel role, sources tell @CBSSports.
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) December 19, 2025
Was assistant GM of player personnel at Auburn this year. Was previously the general manager at Georgia Southern. pic.twitter.com/EbWB5HFje2
The college football world moves fast for players, but it does so for coaches as well. Getting Smith from Auburn is a nice find, as Auburn is always putting together solid recruiting classes and can land some very high-level prospects.
Smith does have a lot of work ahead of him with the class of 2027 in full swing and, more importantly, the transfer portal next month.
Losing a staffer to an SEC opponent is never good, but at least Heupel poached one from another SEC school.