Coaches who would be ideal for Tennessee if Vols have offensive staff vacancy
Josh Heupel has guided Tennessee to 17 regular-season wins in two seasons.
Heupel had one coaching staff change following the 2021 season. Wide receivers coach Kodi Burns joined the New Orleans Saints’ coaching staff in the same capacity.
Kelsey Pope was promoted from an offensive analyst in 2021, replacing Burns under Heupel.
Tennessee offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Alex Golesh is a finalist for the 2022 Broyles Award. He has been mentioned in coaching searches throughout the sport.
Vols Wire looks at ideal coaching options if Heupel does have to fill an on-field offensive coaching vacancy for a second consecutive season.
Heupel could shuffle his on-field staff, add a certain coach with ties to him or even promote someone already at Tennessee in an off-field capacity.
Heupel’s current on-field staff consists of Golesh, Pope, quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle, offensive line coach Glen Elarbee and running backs coach Jerry Mack.
Individuals already within Tennessee’s program in an off-field capacity include offensive support staff personnel Alec Abeln, Kody Cook, Alex Fagan, Charlie High, Tyler Hudanick, Mitch Militello, Jared Peery, Jack Taylor, Max Thurmond and Aston Walter.
Below are coaches who are outside of Tennessee’s program who would be ideal in joining Heupel’s staff if a vacancy occurs.
Kevin Decker
Decker has served as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Fordham since 2019.
Decker installed Josh Heupel’s offense during Fordham’s downtime during the coronavirus shutdown. In 2022, Fordham’s quarterback Tim DeMorat leads the FCS in passing yards (4,891). The Rams averaged 608.9 yards per game in 2022.
David Weeks
Weeks came to Fordham after serving as a student assistant quarterbacks coach from 2018-19 at UCF under Heupel. At UCF under Heupel, Weeks was responsible for helping provide input and breaking down opponent and self-scout film, creating cutups of opponents and self-scout specific film, creating weekly post-game packets and charts, a weekly red zone report, and drawing weekly installs. He was hired by Decker and Fordham to install Heupel’s offense for the Rams.
Walt Bell
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Bell, from Dickson, Tennessee, played at Middle Tennessee State from 2003-06.
The Tennessee native launched his coaching career as a graduate assistant in 2007 at Louisiana–Lafayette during the spring. He joined Memphis’ staff in the fall of 2007 as a graduate assistant, a position he held through 2008 before becoming a quality control coach at Oklahoma State (2009).
Bell earned his first position coaching opportunity at Southern Miss in 2011, overseeing wide receivers. The opportunity came after serving as a graduate assistant with the Golden Eagles in 2010.
He was tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator at North Carolina (2012-13) before becoming an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Arkansas State from 2014-15. At Arkansas State, Bell was co-offensive coordinator with current Tennessee offensive line coach Glen Elarbee. Elarbee also served as a graduate assistant (2003-04) and tight ends coach (2005) at Middle Tennessee State when Bell played wide receiver.
Bell became an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at the Power Five level with Maryland (2016-17) and Florida State (2018) before serving as head coach at UMass (2019-21). He is in his first season as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Indiana.
Joe Jon Finley
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Finley was a tight end for Oklahoma when Heupel was the Sooners’ quarterbacks coach. Finley graduated in 2008 and went on to play in the NFL for San Francisco, Detroit and Carolina between 2008-12.
Following his professional playing career, Finley delved into coaching, beginning as an offensive line coach at Los Fresnos High School in Texas.
He served as a graduate assistant for the Sooners between 2012-13.
After returning to Los Fresnos for one season in 2014, he was a quality control coach at Baylor in 2015.
Heupel was hired as Missouri’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2016. He brought in Finley to serve as the Tigers’ tight ends coach under him. With Finley on staff, Heupel began to install Baylor’s veer and shoot offense.
Finley is serving as Oklahoma’s tight ends coach in 2022 under offensive coordinator and former Heupel assistant Jeff Lebby.
Jon Cooper
AP Photo/Bryan Terry
Cooper played on the offensive line at Oklahoma from 2005-08 when Heupel served as the Sooners’ quarterbacks coach.
While Heupel was co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Oklahoma from 2010-14, Cooper served as a graduate assistant from 2013-14. Cooper followed Heupel to Utah State as a graduate assistant (2015), offensive analyst at Missouri (2016-17) and tight ends coach at UCF (2018-19).
After one season as Arkansas’ tight ends coach in 2020, Cooper served as offensive line coach at Western Carolina. He is now an offensive analyst at Oklahoma under offensive coordinator and former Heupel assistant Jeff Lebby.
Tre Lamb
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Lamb was hired as Gardner–Webb’s head coach in Dec. 2019.
He came to Gardner–Webb from Tennessee Tech where he was offensive coordinator from 2018-19. In 2019, Kelsey Pope served as Lamb’s wide receivers coach at Tennessee Tech.
Lamb hired Pope to serve as his passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach at Gardner-Webb. Pope departed Gardner-Webb when Heupel hired him as an offensive analyst at Tennessee. Pope was promoted as the Vols’ wide receivers coach in 2022.
Lamb served as quarterbacks coach at Mercer from 2014-17 and in the same capacity at Tennessee Tech in 2013. He played quarterback at Tennessee Tech from 2008-12 for head coach Watson Brown.
Andrew Sowder
Sowder serves as Kent State’s offensive coordinator. He played and coached at Baylor.
Sowder served as a student assistant coach at Baylor from 2009-10. He and Kent State executes similar schemes as Tennessee under Heupel, stemming from Baylor’s veer and shoot.
Kent State is 42nd nationally in total yards (5,015) in 2022.
Anthony Tucker
Tucker is in his second season as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Utah State. He coached under Heupel as co-offensive coordinator and running backs coach in 2020, passing game coordinator and running backs coach in 2019 and running backs coach during the 2018 campaign at UCF.
Tucker served as running backs coach at Maryland from 2016-17 under Walt Bell. He also served as running backs and wide receivers coach at Arkansas State from 2013-15 under Bell and Vols’ assistant Glen Elarbee.
Utah State and Tucker played at Alabama in Week 1 this season and provided a blueprint for Heupel’s offensive system to have success against the Crimson Tide.
Joe Scelfo
(Joe Scelfo #66) Photo by Mike Comer/Getty Images
Scelfo is in his second season as run game coordinator and offensive line coach at Garder-Webb under Tre Lamb.
Scelfo spent the previous two seasons coaching guards and centers at Southeastern Louisiana.
He played at North Carolina State and South Alabama. With the Wolfpack, Scelfo played for then-offensive coordinator and current Missouri head coach Eliah Drinkwitz.
Zach Kittley
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Kittley returned to Texas Tech in 2022 as the Red Raiders’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He previously coached at Texas Tech from 2013-17 under then-head coach Kliff Kingsbury. Like Heupel, Kingsbury also played quarterback for Mike Leach.
Kittley has coached quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Bailey Zappe.
Nick Charlton
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Chartlon is in his first season as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at UConn.
He served as Maine’s head coach from 2019-21.
Charlton coached alongside Ryan Day from 2012-14 as a graduate assistant at Boston College. The current Ohio State head coach was offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach alongside Charlton.
Charlton’s offense is a lot like Day’s, attacking the middle and has shallow crossing routes. His offense also features a physical running game that allows for two tight end sets. The offense also has power and zone-gap run schemes.
Jake Thornton
Photo by Dan Harralson, Vols Wire
Thornton is in his second season as Ole Miss’ offensive line coach. He came to Ole Miss after serving as running game coordinator and offensive line coach at Gardner-Webb (2020) and Tennessee Tech (2018-19) under Tre Lamb and alongside Kelsey Pope.
