Vols insider shares the unique way that Tennessee’s Josh Heupel could choose to replace outside linebackers coach Mike Ekeler
The Tennessee Vols have an opening on their coaching staff with special teams coordinator/outside linebackers coach Mike Ekeler reportedly set to head to Nebraska to join Matt Rhule’s staff.
Ekeler, who is from Nebraska, spent the last four seasons on Josh Heupel’s coaching staff at Tennessee.
VolQuest’s Brent Hubbs joined 104.5 The Zone’s Ramon, Kayla, and Will on Friday and he shared the latest on Tennessee’s search to replace Ekeler.
Hubbs suggested that Heupel could actually hire two coaches to replace Ekeler, with one of those coaches — likely the special teams coach — technically serving as an analyst.
“It looks like Coach Chop, Levorn Harbin, would be the most logical choice to coach the outside linebackers,” said Hubbs. “And you would just promote from within (Harbin is currently a senior analyst for UT). Here’s what we know about Josh Heupel — even when he’s promoted in the past, he’s not walking down the hall and saying, ‘Hey, congratulations, you’ve got the job’. He’s done his due diligence. He’s talked to a lot of people. And I think he will do that here. I think he will interview other candidates. I think he’ll talk to people. But I think (defensive coordinator) Tim Banks is very comfortable with Coach Chop. [Banks] likes him as a coach.
“Coach Chop has been around (defensive line coach) Rodney Garner for a half dozen years or better. He came to Knoxville from Auburn with Coach Garner. And he’s the highest paid analyst at Tennessee, one of the highest paid analysts in the country. That’s the logical step that you would take at outside linebackers you would think. But again, Josh Heupel will be diligent in that. He’s not just going to walk down the hall and hand it to him. And then on the special teams side of things, you know, it’s a different world. It used to be that when you had a job opening….you’d say well, if I’m losing my special teams guy, I’ve got to go hire a special teams coordinator as a, quote, full time staff member, one of my nine (on-field coaches), or whatever. That’s not the case anymore because analysts can coach. Anybody who’s in the building can go to the practice field and coach.”
“So I think there’s a real chance Josh Heupel looks for a veteran coach with a lot of special teams experience who could be a coordinator,” continued Hubbs. “But [he] wouldn’t be considered one of the — I mean, I guess he would be considered an analyst, even though he could go recruit if you declared him for recruiting. You just have so much more flexibility in the numbers now. It’s not about how many you have on your staff, it’s about how many are you willing to pay? And how much money do you have to pay people? I think you’ll see Tennessee bring in somebody with a good bit of special teams experience, and then obviously he’ll fill the outside linebackers role as well. I don’t think that person necessarily will be the same person.”
As Hubbs noted, Heupel doesn’t tend to get in a hurry to hire new coaches, so I wouldn’t look for any announcements about Ekeler’s replacement (or replacements) in the coming days.
