Restructured Tennessee football staff comes at a discount, contracts show

[VolsSince78]

Yeah.......saving money on discount coaches has really served us well, this decade, huh?

Excellent point.

And one of the biggest reasons Fulmer hired Pruitt was that Pruitt told him he had some good assistants that would come with him. This year’s coaching transition has me in a “wait and see” mode, unlike last year’s hires of Ansley, Chaney and Tee.

For now, I still have faith that we have a real football coach who will continue to assess and acquire coaching talent, unlike the last guy who was more salesman than coach. (No disrespect intended to the sales profession.) Hope my faith isn’t misguided.

 

[KBVol]

2020 assistant coach salaries

• Jim Chaney (offensive coordinator) – $1.6M
• Derrick Ansley (defensive coordinator) – $1M
• Will Friend (offensive line coach) – $805,000
• Jimmy Brumbaugh (defensive line coach) – $650,000
• Jay Graham (running backs coach) – $575,000
• Tee Martin (wide receivers coach) – $450,000
• Chris Weinke (quarterbacks coach) – $355,000*
• Brian Niedermeyer (inside linebackers coach) – $355,000
• Shelton Felton (outside linebackers coach) – $225,000
• Joe Osovet (tight ends coach) – $225,000
  
  Total – $6.24M

* Weinke's contract expired on Jan. 31. He remains on the staff. Tennessee has not announced a new deal for him. The salary listed here reflects his old contract.

2019 assistant coach salaries

• Jim Chaney (offensive coordinator) – $1.5M
• Derrick Ansley (defensive coordinator) – $1M
• Chris Rumph (outside linebackers coach) – $805,000
• Will Friend (offensive line coach) – $805,000
• Kevin Sherrer (inside linebackers coach) – $705,000
• Tracy Rocker (defensive line coach) – $505,000
• David Johnson (running backs coach) – $505,000
• Tee Martin (wide receivers coach) – $450,000
• Chris Weinke (quarterbacks coach) – $355,000
• Brian Niedermeyer (tight ends coach) – $355,000
  
  Total – $6.985M

Restructured Tennessee football staff comes at a discount, contracts show

Pruitt Adds Brumbaugh and Felton to Football Coaching Staff - University of Tennessee Athletics

Changes, I would even say upgrades staff AND saves money? That’s fantastic.....got 3/4 of a mil left over to go towards Pruitt’s raise. Win-win.

 

[Big Al Orange]

His girlfriend rescinds your thanks.

His mother and I were having a nice conversation, before his girlfriend butted in. Lol

 

[KBVol]

Yeah.......saving money on discount coaches has really served us well, this decade, huh?

Most overused and ignorant statements I see from time to time. We made poor hires for sure because of our poor leadership from Hamilton thru Hart. Poor hiring decisions have been the problem, not how much we did or didn’t spend.

Right now we have one of the largest budgets in the country for our football staff, 5th or 6th in the entire country iirc. We just replaced very experienced and long-tenured guys (total years as a college football coach) that weren’t as “enthused” about recruiting (both Sherrer and Rumph went to the nfl in part so they wouldn’t have to recruit anymore)......with younger guys who, according to Austin Price, will be “hungrier” and more devoted to recruiting at a higher level. The fact that we paid them commensurate with their experience level and saved three-quarters of a million dollars to put towards Pruitt and other things needed for the football program isn’t a negative imo.

 

[LittleVol]

Friend must have more quality control and coordination responsibilities than we all realize behind the scenes

 

[DaddyChad]

Not picking on you but what's the basis for thinking we've upgraded the staff. We replaced 3 guys (Sherrer, Rumph, Rocker) that were all employed as assistants by elite schools prior to UT to 3 guys who havent. They very well could be upgrades but its definitely not based on experience to date. I think Pruitt's assistant/coordinator choices have been a little uneven to blindly put faith in them (Didnt like Y1 coordinators, thought Y2 he did a much better job)

I bring this up reluctantly since I might still be emotionally scarred from the onslaught of Negavol comments I received when I criticized Butch Jones hiring Larry Scott 3 yrs ago.

Honestly I think it’s a fair criticism or should I say skepticism since idk if you’re even in the area of being critical yet. I will say I think Ansley was allowed to have a lot of input in who was hired this time. I think Brumbaugh is pretty well thought of and his salary reflects that, I maybe mistaken but I think that’s a wash in coaching ability and slight upgrade in recruiting. The other two are young and unproven but hell these are position coaches not coordinators like Scott who you pointed out. I’m fairly sure they should have picked up a bit about position coaching in their time here. Both are fairly known as far as what kind of fit they are with the current staff. I think we’ve definitely gotten better as a staff recruiting and the jury is somewhat out on coaching but I would be wayyyy more concerned if this were a coordinator hire that was inexperienced.

 

[BigOrangeMojo]

Honestly I think it’s a fair criticism or should I say skepticism since idk if you’re even in the area of being critical yet. I will say I think Ansley was allowed to have a lot of input in who was hired this time. I think Brumbaugh is pretty well thought of and his salary reflects that, I maybe mistaken but I think that’s a wash in coaching ability and slight upgrade in recruiting. The other two are young and unproven but hell these are position coaches not coordinators like Scott who you pointed out. I’m fairly sure they should have picked up a bit about position coaching in their time here. Both are fairly known as far as what kind of fit they are with the current staff. I think we’ve definitely gotten better as a staff recruiting and the jury is somewhat out on coaching but I would be wayyyy more concerned if this were a coordinator hire that was inexperienced.

Skeptical is the better word for the hires this offseason (I'm not skeptical of the hires, just skeptical of the assumption that they are automatically an upgrade). I agree that Brumbaugh and Rocker were likely a wash. I think it's fair to raise the point that two guys that were deemed good enough to get NFL assistant jobs and had prior P5 pedigree were replaced by two guys who have never been an on-field coach at the P5 level. There is a chance they are better but it does take a leap of faith to get there. With all that being said, CJP gets more of the benefit of the doubt for this now then he would have at the end of September.

 

[kiddiedoc]

After the debacle that was last September, I think it's fair for anyone to be a little nervous trading experienced coaches for a couple of unknowns. We absolutely cannot come out flat and unprepared this fall.

 

[kbear01]

Most overused and ignorant statements I see from time to time. We made poor hires for sure because of our poor leadership from Hamilton thru Hart. Poor hiring decisions have been the problem, not how much we did or didn’t spend.

Right now we have one of the largest budgets in the country for our football staff, 5th or 6th in the entire country iirc. We just replaced very experienced and long-tenured guys (total years as a college football coach) that weren’t as “enthused” about recruiting (both Sherrer and Rumph went to the nfl in part so they wouldn’t have to recruit anymore)......with younger guys who, according to Austin Price, will be “hungrier” and more devoted to recruiting at a higher level. The fact that we paid them commensurate with their experience level and saved three-quarters of a million dollars to put towards Pruitt and other things needed for the football program isn’t a negative imo.

It took you a writing nearly an entire essay, but, you answered my question. Budget Coaches have not worked out well, in the past. Not saying it will not go well, this time. So, pardon me for not getting excited about discount coaching hires.

 

[kbear01]

Excellent point.

And one of the biggest reasons Fulmer hired Pruitt was that Pruitt told him he had some good assistants that would come with him. This year’s coaching transition has me in a “wait and see” mode, unlike last year’s hires of Ansley, Chaney and Tee.

For now, I still have faith that we have a real football coach who will continue to assess and acquire coaching talent, unlike the last guy who was more salesman than coach. (No disrespect intended to the sales profession.) Hope my faith isn’t misguided.

Same here. Just a wee bit apprehensive. Hoping for the best. Bracing for the worst.

 

[sjt18]

In what universe is a low salary of $225K a "discount"?

I've hired a lot of people over the years. You almost never hire people at their true market value. Their resume and work history may or may not accurately project their quality. We won't know how these guys compare to guys who commanded more pay due to perception until they start doing the job. For all we know, the $705K Sherrer was getting won't be enough to keep Niedermeyer this time next year.

FWIW, I think it may be a case where some of the outgoing guys were overpaid. We will see... but I don't think it is wise to assume quality solely based on salary.