Heupel Assistant Coaches Announcement Thread (Official)

#31
#31
Roustabout said:
Figured we needed this. Maybe? This guy is moving as slow as molasses. Has any assistant new hire been named?

OC-?
QB-?
WR-?
TE?
RB-?
OL-?

DC-?
DL-?
LB-?
DB-?

ST-?
Click to expand...
Put me down for OC. I will hold a clipboard for CJH (since he's gonna call the plays anyway), and collect a cool half a mil a year per typical UT stupidity. Wait... I'll do it for $300k. Bargain. Because I want to be there.

Oh, and Strength and Conditioning should be at the top of the list. That is the most important coach on the staff. Look at what happened after Butch fired his..... change my mind.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Nouveaux, Wireless1, Rando and 1 other person
#33
#33
Lurker said:
I disagree. No amount of hiring speed by Heupel could fix this mess. Whether the class is screwed or not was entirely attributable to what happened before he accepted this job.
Click to expand...
Agree. I’m not a fan of the “year zero” concept but this is truly year zero. Heupel is he’s successful will have to build this from the ground up.
 
  • Like
Reactions: zidanefan
#34
#34
What is this? Is this a thread for completely off target speculation, like the HC job?

You will know when everyone else knows.
 
#35
#35
I don't think that not having a staff by signing day this year is a big deal at all. We have some seniors coming back for the free year and we will probably take a hit ourselves in scholly's for this year as part of our self punishment. This would work well to get some of the punishment out of the way in a year where the seniors coming back can fill the gaps. This also gives the new coach a chance to be prepared for who we recruit since most of his UCF recruits are probably below what we would be looking at.JMO
 
  • Like
Reactions: Border Vol
#38
#38
SpaceCoastVol said:
Put me down for OC. I will hold a clipboard for CJH (since he's gonna call the plays anyway), and collect a cool half a mil a year per typical UT stupidity. Wait... I'll do it for $300k. Bargain. Because I want to be there.

Oh, and Strength and Conditioning should be at the top of the list. That is the most important coach on the staff. Look at what happened after Butch fired his..... change my mind.
Click to expand...
They haven’t fired Artis. May give him a legit chance with an actual off-season.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Beagle Bill and SpaceCoastVol
#39
#39
gardners_51609 said:
He also has reportedly offered Steele the DC spot but Steele has supposedly not given an answer yet.
Click to expand...

This seems very weird if true. Why would he join the staff with no title a few weeks back with a major investigation and huge uncertainty hanging over the program and then not want to accept a DC offer from the new staff?
 
#40
#40
Here's what I think has happened so far.

As soon as Danny White initiated the conversation with Josh about possibly becoming Tennessee's next head coach, one of the first things Danny asked Josh to do was draft up ideas on how he would staff the program. And Josh got to work.

His initial list included some of his assistants at UCF, but not all of them. And it included some possible keeps from the existing Tennessee staff, but not all of them. And it probably included one or more folks from outside both programs, though that's just speculation.

Then, as soon as Danny hired Josh, Josh reached out to his UCF assistants, the ones he wanted to bring to Knoxville. Got their informal agreement, but told them nothing would be formalized for a week. Why a week? Because National Signing Day was only (at that time) five days away, and Josh wanted to focus on shoring up the roster first.

The morning of his official hiring, Josh met with his UCF staff in their entirety. He thanked them all for the past three years, and let some of them know he wouldn't be asking them to come north. Then he talked to the UCF football team, and got on a plane.

Once he was in Knoxville, he met the UT leadership and held the introductory press conference, then went and met with the football team. As soon as he finished with the lads, he talked to each member of the Tennessee staff individually, letting some of them (Chaney and Weinke) know that he wouldn't be retaining them. The others, (Steele, Martin and Osovet), he told he was interested, but needed to spend more time talking with them about possibilities...but again, not until after the lads were tended and the roster shored up. In other words, not until after Wednesday.

At least one of them (Tee) had a contract soon to run out, so Josh got Danny and the AD's office to gin up a quick short-term (two-week or one-month) contract extension to cover until the real conversations could be had.

Then all of the coaches involved got to work on the team as it is now, plus the fellas in the portal. Plus the recruits. And mixing all those bits together, identifying any holes that needed to be filled in the last 100 hours before NSD.

And that's what they've been doing ever since. I say "ever since," but it's only been since Friday night. Less than 72 hours so far. Whirlwind crash-course in saving a roster.

Will we hear about Kevin Steele, and Tee Martin, and Joe Osovet, and the men coming with Josh from UCF? Yes. Starting Thursday, after the lads are taken care of.

This thread will be able to take off then. But I doubt you'll get any ?'s filled in prior to that.

Go Vols!

p.s. I don't think he's offered Steele anything yet, I think he wants to spend time with him, get a feel for how they'd work together, and his philosphy and approach, and all that. And simply hasn't had any time to have those kinds of in-depth conversations about anything other than the roster and its needs. It's all deferred.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Moped, Olderthandirt, tbh and 12 others
#41
#41
Traditional signing day is a even more toothless with the portal added on top of the early signing period. I would look for UT to utilize the portal heavily to add to roster. I believe the portal is open until June, but not 💯 on that.
 
#42
#42
VFL-82-JP said:
Here's what I think has happened so far.

As soon as Danny White initiated the conversation with Josh about him possibly becoming Tennessee's next head coach, one of the first things Danny asked Josh to do was draft up some ideas on how he would staff the program. And Josh got to work.

His initial list included some of his assistants at UCF, but not all of them. And it included some possible keeps from the existing Tennessee staff, but not all of them. And it probably included one or more folks from outside both programs, though that's just speculation.

As soon as Danny hired Josh, Josh reached out to his UCF assistants, the ones he wanted to bring to Knoxville. Got their informal agreement, but told them nothing formal for a week. Why a week? Because National Signing Day was only (at that time) five days away, and Josh wanted to focus on shoring up the roster first.

The morning of his official hiring, Josh met with his UCF staff in their entirety. He thanked them all for the past three years, and let some of them know he wouldn't be asking them to come north. Then he talked to the UCF football team, and got on a plane.

Once he was in Knoxville, had met all the leadership, and held the introductory press conference, he went and met with the football team. As soon as he finished with the lads, he talked to each member of the Tennessee staff individually, letting some of them (Chaney and Weinke) know that he wouldn't be retaining them. The others, (Steele, Martin and Osovet), he told he was interested, but needed to spend more time talking with them about possibilities...but again, not until after the lads were tended and the roster shored up. In other words, not until after Wednesday.

A couple of them had contracts soon to run out, so Josh got Danny and the AD's office to gin up some quick short-term (two-week or one-month) contracts to cover them until the real conversations could be had.

Then they got to work on the team as it is now, plus the fellas in the portal. Plus the recruits. And mixing all those bits together, identifying any holes that needed to be filled in the last 96 hours before NSD.

And that's what they've been doing ever since. I say "ever since," but it's only been since Friday night. Less than 72 hours so far. Whirlwind crash-course in saving a roster.

Will we hear about Kevin Steele, and Tee Martin, and Joe Osovet, and the men coming with Josh from UCF? Yes. Starting Thursday, after the lads are taken care of.

This thread will be able to take off then. But I doubt you'll get any ?'s filled in prior to that.

Go Vols!

p.s. I don't think he's offered Steele anything yet, I think he wants to spend time with him, get a feel for how they'd work together, and his philosphy and approach, and all that. And simply hasn't had any time to have those kinds of in-depth conversations about anything other than the roster and its needs. It's all deferred.
Click to expand...


Well thought out post.

Seems logical.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Plecoptera and tarvol73
#43
#43
DiderotsGhost said:
This seems very weird if true. Why would he join the staff with no title a few weeks back with a major investigation and huge uncertainty hanging over the program and then not want to accept a DC offer from the new staff?
Click to expand...
He wanted more?
 
  • Like
Reactions: BIGORANGEBUBBA
#46
#46
SpaceCoastVol said:
Put me down for OC. I will hold a clipboard for CJH (since he's gonna call the plays anyway), and collect a cool half a mil a year per typical UT stupidity. Wait... I'll do it for $300k. Bargain. Because I want to be there.

Oh, and Strength and Conditioning should be at the top of the list. That is the most important coach on the staff. Look at what happened after Butch fired his..... change my mind.
Click to expand...
We'll, Dooley's STs were unable to find a player to field a punt and that worked out. . .oh NM.
 
#48
#48
tbones0711 said:
Well we recently had a 4* OT flip to Auburn and W.Friend that might could have been avoided if we had a named coach. Naming coaching hires after NSD sounds bass-ackwards,imo.
Click to expand...
Did we want him? We didn’t let him sign in the early signing period.
 
#49
#49
It took arguably too long to conclude the Pruitt saga, but taking that into account, if Heupel starts putting the staff together this week I believe he is moving forward well. He has been onboard under a week, so let's give him a break. And I say this as a person NOT on the Heupel bandwagon. He is stepping into a tough situation, and he has the abbreviated NSD staring him in the face, along with multiple portal departures.

It's a catch 22. he NEEDS a staff to get on this, but he needs to get on this NOW, and it takes time to put a staff together.

At the end of the day, he has 4 million reasons to get this right. we shall see.
 
  • Like
Reactions: OleVol
#50
#50
CINCYVOL said:
Traditional signing day is a even more toothless with the portal added on top of the early signing period. I would look for UT to utilize the portal heavily to add to roster. I believe the portal is open until June, but not 💯 on that.
Click to expand...

The portal is always open
 
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top