Vols fire Jeremy Pruitt, hiring UCF’s Josh Heupel

forgot how awful he was

U right

but those pants he wore though..

 

Vols247 hot board

Spoiler

In no particular order, here's the first look at the GoVols247 Head Coach Hot Board.

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Hugh Freeze (Liberty)
The former Ole Miss coach hasn’t exactly kept secret his feelings about the Tennessee job in recent weeks and he’s emerged as the top choice of the fans. Will Tennessee view it the same way and make it happen? That is the more complicated question, and sources have suggested Freeze is not a direction Tennessee is willing to go. Freeze was 39-25 (and 19-21 in the SEC) in five seasons at Ole Miss and in 2014 and 2015 guided the Rebels to a No. 3 national ranking and New Year’s Six bowl games and beat Alabama twice.

Ole Miss never won the SEC West, though, and the end of Freeze’s tenure was rather tumultuous. Ole Miss went 5-7 in 2016, suffering season-ending losses to Vanderbilt and Mississippi State by 56 combined points. He then incurred major NCAA violations (impermissible benefits for players chief among the NCAA’s findings) that landed Ole Miss a two-year bowl ban, three-year probation and scholarship reductions, and Freeze resigned ahead of the 2017 season after it was discovered he’d been making what Ole Miss termed a “concerning pattern” of phone calls from his University-issued phone to a female escort service.

After two seasons out of coaching, Freeze was hired at Liberty in December 2018 and is 17-6 the past two seasons, guiding the fledgling FBS Flames into the top 25 and a 10-1 record including wins against two ACC opponents and a Cure Bowl victory against then-unbeaten Coastal Carolina in 2020. Freeze, who's had 10-win seasons at all four collegiate programs he's coached, has Tennessee ties in the western half of the state from coaching at Briarcrest Christian School in Memphis and Lambuth University in Jackson.


Jamey Chadwell (Coastal Carolina)
Yes, Coastal Carolina recently announced a big contract extension for Chadwell to reward him for a dream season that saw the Chanticleers, in their fourth year as an FBS program, start 10-0, ascend to No. 9 in the AP poll and win the Sun Belt title before losing to Liberty in the Cure Bowl. But if Tennessee comes calling, it might be hard for Chadwell to turn it down. He’s from Caryville and played at East Tennessee State, so there’s ties to the state and the area. Coastal has been an exciting team to watch this season and he’s built a winning culture in Conway.

Prior to this breakout season, Chadwell coached at Division II programs North Greenville and Delta State, and in four seasons at Charleston Southern, Chadwell won 10 games twice and made two FCS playoff appearances, though he incurred some NCAA violations resulting in vacated wins there. He came to Coastal as an offensive coordinator, so he’s got a background of knowing how to put up points. Chadwell was linked to the Vanderbilt job, and the Tennessee pressure-cooker would be a big step up for him, but we believe he’d have interest in the Vols and they would have him on their radar.


Billy Napier (Louisiana)
One of the two coaches this season to beat Campbell, Napier would be a good fit at Tennessee. He’s from Cookeville and has extensive experience coaching and recruiting in Tennessee’s usual recruiting radius. Yes, he’s a former Nick Saban assistant, but unlike Jeremy Pruitt he’s a more offensive-minded coach and he’s got head coaching experience. The former Clemson and Alabama assistant coach is 28-11 at Louisiana and has had the Cajuns playing for the Sun Belt title in all three of his seasons there.

Louisiana went 7-7 in 2018, then won 11 games in 2019 and went 10-1 this season, which began with an upset win at Iowa State. He’s built a strong culture with the Cajuns and could instill the same kind of toughness in Knoxville. Napier was in play at South Carolina and Auburn before passing on them, which suggests he is being selective about his next move. Would Tennessee be a job he has series interest in or is he thinking bigger? In any case we believe the Vols are expected to have Napier on their list.


Doug Marrone (In the market)
The former Tennessee assistant coach, who's close with Phillip Fulmer, was fired by the Jacksonville Jaguars after the team's 1-15 season in 2020. Would he be willing to come back to the college level? Marrone hasn't coached in college since 2012 when after a four-year stint at Syracuse he was hired as the head coach of the Buffalo Bills. He went 15-17 in two seasons there before landing with the Jaguars as their assistant head coach and offensive line coach.

Marrone was named Jacksonville's interim coach in 2016 and in his first full season with the franchise guided it to the AFC Championship Game, where the Jaguars lost to the Patriots. Jacksonville was just 12-36 over the next three seasons and pink-slipped Marrone after a one-win campaign. Marrone was Tennessee's tight ends and offensive tackles coach in 2001 under Fulmer, and he also coached at Georgia Tech and Georgia as an assistant coach. At Syracuse he went 25-25 in four seasons, twice going 8-5 with bowl wins back when the Orange were in the Big East Conference. He was the offensive coordinator for the New Orleans Saints for three years prior to Syracuse hiring him.

We always lean toward NFL coaches preferring to stick in the NFL so this looks like a longshot, but Marrone's connection with Fulmer and his availability is enough to warrant a spot here.


Gus Malzahn (In the market)
The now-former Auburn coach is in the market after the Tigers dismissed him a week ago. Malzahn is one of the few active coaches with wins against Saban on the resume and he did it three times at Auburn. He went 68-35 (and 39-27 in the SEC) in eight seasons with the Tigers, winning the SEC in his first season in 2013 (after Auburn went 3-9 in 2012) and the SEC West in 2017. But outside of 2013 (12-2) and 2017 (10-4), Auburn went 9-4 once, 8-5 three times and 7-6 once and was 6-4 this season, which in the shadow of Alabama’s dynasty prompted Auburn to end the annual will-he-or-won’t-he tug-of-war.

Malzahn is getting a $21+ million from Auburn with half of it coming soon and the other half over the next four seasons, so theoretically he could come at a discount (there’s no offset to the buyout) and assemble a well-paid coaching staff. In some ways, Malzahn is a better version of Freeze in terms of his record, wins against Alabama and lack of baggage, but it’s not known if he’ll want to jump back in the SEC grind right away or if the Tennessee job is one he wants. If it is, the Vols could do worse, and landing a motivated Malzahn could be a nice coup.


Tom Herman (In the market)
Tennessee could do far worse than a coach with a 54-22 career record. Herman is available after Texas fired him to hire Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian earlier this month. He was viewed as a can't-miss coaching prospect when he was nearly hired at LSU and wound up at Texas following a successful two-year stint at Houston. The Cougars went 13-1 and won the American Athletic Conference title and Peach Bowl and finished in the top 10 in 2015 and were 9-3 under Herman in 2016.

Taking over the Longhorns after the Charlie Strong tenure, Herman improved Texas from 7-6 in 2017 to 10-4 (with a Big 12 title game loss to Oklahoma and Sugar Bowl win against Georgia) in 2018, and 8-5 record in 2019 was followed up with a 7-3 campaign in 2020 when Texas finished third in the Big 12 thanks to losses by five combined points to TCU and Iowa State at home plus a four-overtime defeat to rival Oklahoma.

Herman was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Texas State, Rice and Iowa State before Urban Meyer hired him at Ohio State, and in three seasons with Herman as their offensive coordinator the Buckeyes ripped off a run of 12-0, 12-2 (Orange Bowl) and 14-1 with a national title in 2014. Ohio State's offenses averaged 37, 45 and 45 points in those seasons, Houston ranked 10th and 26th nationally in scoring under Herman and Texas improved from 52nd and 45th nationally in scoring to 17th in 2019 and eighth in 2020.


Neal Brown (West Virginia)
Brown is just 10-11 through two seasons at West Virginia, but he’d check a lot of boxes for Tennessee. The Louisville native is an offensive-minded coach, having been the offensive coordinator previously at Texas Tech under Tommy Tuberville and at Kentucky, and he has been successful as a head coach in this part of the country. Brown was wildly successful at Troy, guiding the Trojans to the 2017 Sun Belt title and another conference championship game appearance in 2018. Troy was 3-9 the season before hiring Brown, and after a 4-8 debut he ripped off a three-year stretch of 31 wins in 39 games.

Under Brown, Troy played eventual national champion Clemson to a 30-24 loss in 2016 and pulled off upsets of LSU in 2017 and Nebraska in 2018. Brown does have a couple of wins against ranked Big 12 teams at West Virginia, but he was linked to both the South Carolina and Auburn jobs. The Mountaineers have discussed a contract extension to fend off any suitors, but Brown might be a realistic option for the Vols.


Bill Clark (UAB)
Somebody’s going to wise up and hire Clark soon, right? Auburn heavily considered it and interviewed Clark before ultimately hiring Boise State's Bryan Harsin. Clark has done an incredible job at UAB, taking the Blazers to new heights and turning them into a consistent winner in Conference USA … after the program disappeared for two seasons. In its first season back, UAB went 8-5, and then won 11 games and the C-USA title in 2018. Clark guided the Blazers back to the league championship game last season and last month UAB won at Marshall for a second conference title in three seasons.

He previously took Jacksonville State to the FCS quarterfinals in his lone season there after five seasons as the South Alabama defensive coordinator and an extensive career as a high school coach in the state. Clark is 34-16 since UAB’s self-imposed death penalty, and at some point a bigger program will hire him and he’ll build a winning culture there. We’ve heard Clark had some contact with Auburn, which suggests he might have interest in making a jump to the SEC.


Jeff Hafley (Boston College)
The former NFL and Ohio State coach just finished his first season at Boston College, and the Eagles were competitive in losses to College Football Playoff participants Clemson and Notre Dame and a really good North Carolina team en route to a 6-5 season. He's not a household name and won't be on the radar for many Tennessee fans, but he's a name to keep in mind. Though he's a defensive backs coach at his core, the 41-year-old has a strong reputation at the NFL and college levels.

Hafley worked for Greg Schiano (yes, we know) both at Rutgers and with the NFL's Tampa Bucs, and since branching off from Schiano after the 2013 season, he spent two seasons with the Cleveland Browns and three with the San Francisco 49ers coaching the secondary and defensive backs. He returned to the college coaching ranks when Ohio State hired him to be its co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach, and he made an immediate impact for the Buckeyes, serving as the primary recruiter on seven four-star players and earning 247Sports Defensive Coordinator of the Year honors. Ohio State was No. 1 in the country in total defense in 2019, too, after ranking 72nd nationally the previous season

 

I’m guessing they will need to hire an AD first before they run this coaching search

need this to stretch out months

 

Vol fans guessing Neidermyer and Ansley

 

I got the names after a thorough investigation, think of it like I’m Malone to your Stockton