It has been a week since Jeremy Pruitt and nine others were fired for cause at Tennessee. Since that time, Tennessee has hired a new athletic director in Danny White and begun searching for the next head coach.
Danny White is no stranger to making great hires. He hired Bobby Hurley and Nate Oats while at Buffalo, and continued that success when he went to Central Florida. He hired Scott Frost and Josh Heupel as football coaches and Johnny Dawkins as basketball coaches.
Now that White is in place as the athletic director. He wants to put his imprint on the program by bringing in someone that fits the style of football he likes. It is time to revisit the coaching candidates and see what the board looks like now:
Tom Herman
Herman is still at the top of my list. The 45-year-old MENSA member knows football. The offensive minded coach brings the style of play that White is looking for. He had a .710 winning percentage and has never lost a bowl game. Only reason Herman might not be the guy is if he decides to take a year off and collect some of the $15 million dollar buyout from Texas.
Jamey Chadwell
Chadwell is still number two on my list. An East Tennessee native, who grew up cheering for the Volunteers. Would be a great hire for the University. Everything I have read and heard is that Chadwell wants the job. He is an offensive guy, but the only thing that will hurt him is his lack of Power 5 head coaching experience.
Billy Napier
Napier could have had the Auburn job if he wanted it. An offensive minded guy who has had success at Louisiana. However, he is a Saban disciple and I'm not sure if Tennessee is really ready to go down that road again after the massive failures with Derek Dooley and Jeremy Pruitt.
Now that my Top 3 have been addressed, here are some names that have been popping up since Danny White was named athletic director:
Lane Kiffin
Jesus I can't believe I'm even talking about this as an option. But it actually is starting to make sense to me. White and Kiffin both love to use Twitter. Kiffin is hands down one of the best offensive minds in college football. He has a winning record, and has head coaching experience in the Power 5. The one thing that puts Kiffin on the radar, is he was the head coach at Florida Atlantic, where White's brother, Brian was the athletic director. Brian White tried to lock Kiffin up long term, before he bolted for Ole Miss. Would Tennessee welcome Kiffin back after the way he left town in January of 2010?
Josh Heupel
This name isn't a sexy pick. However, it is a safe pick. Heupel was the quarterback who helped build the foundation of what Oklahoma football is today. After spending two seasons as a player in the NFL, Heupel returned to college and began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at his alma mater. He has worked his way up to become the offensive coordinator at such places as Oklahoma, Utah State and Missouri, before Danny White named him the head coach at Central Florida in 2018. He has compiled a 28-8 record in his 3 seasons at Central Florida. While Heupel is offensive minded, the guy he replaced, Scott Frost, hasn't faired to well since he jumped to Nebraska. I think it is fair to say that Tennessee fans could be worried that the same thing could happen to Heupel if he made the jump to Rocky Top.
Tony Elliot
Elliot's name has gained a lot of steam since Danny White was named athletic director. Elliott, the current co-offensive coordinator at Clemson is a rising star in the coaching ranks. Elliott has a history with White, as he was one of the people interviewed by White to replace Scott Frost when he left for Nebraska. Elliott has been picky about his next move. Will Tennessee be that next move?
Gus Malzahn
If Tennessee hired Malzahn, they would be getting a a veteran SEC coach with a championship pedigree, who has beaten Saban three times. A solid offensive mind, who doesn't have a buy out does make him attractive. However, Malzahn has a history of not being able to develop a quarterback, and after the last staff wasn't able to develop Guarantano or any quarterback, would Tennessee really go there again?
Bill O'Brien
While O'Brien is rumored to be the next offensive coordinator at Alabama, he proved when he took over Penn State following the Sandusky scandal, that he knows how to rebuild a major Power 5 program. It would be hard to sell O'Brien to a lot of the fan base because of how he ran the Houston Texans into the ground as the general manager. Doesn't make many fans feel like O'Brien knows how to identify talent.
There have been three names that I have started to hear about in the last 24 hours:
Sonny Dykes
Dykes is the current head coach at SMU. He got his first head coaching break in 2010, when he replaced Derek Dooley at Louisiana Tech, when Dooley left to go to Tennessee. (Jesus, have we come full circle on that??) He was there for three years, and left for Cal-Berkley, where he spent four seasons as the head coach of the Golden Bears. He has been the head coach at SMU since 2018. It would be hard to sell Dykes to the fan base, since Cal-Berkley was his only Power 5 head coaching job, and he went 19-30, including a 1-11 record his first season.
PJ Fleck
The current Minnesota Golden Gophers head coach would be a solid hire. He has gone 26-19 in his four seasons at Minnesota. Prior to Minnesota, he was at the helm of Western Michigan for four seasons. He was able to build the Broncos from a 1-11 team his first season, to 13-1 in his final season, with the only loss being a 24-16 defeat at the hands of Wisconsin in the Cotton Bowl. Fleck's record at Minnesota hasn't been stellar, and his "row the boat" gimmick he has used would wear very thin on Tennessee fans, especially after the "brick by brick" gimmick fans had shoved down their throat by Butch Jones.
Will Healy
This name has got my attention. In 2018, he was the second youngest head coach in Division 1. The 36-year-old head coach has had a lack luster record in five seasons as a head coach, compliling a 22-31 career record at Austin Peay and Charlotte. Healy does have ties to East Tennessee. He is from Chattanooga. He played quarterback at Boyd Buchanan high school, and still holds the Chattanooga-area career passing record with more than 7,700 yards passing. He started his college career at Air Force, before transferring to Richmond, where he played quarterback for future Tennessee OC, Dave Clawson. He then returned to Chattanooga to become an assistant coach at the University of Chattanooga, where he helped coach former Tennessee quarterback, B.J. Coleman. Healy eventually worked his way up to recruiting coordinator where helped compile back to back top recruiting classes in FCS. Healy isn't even close to being a home run hire. He would be very hard to sell to sell to the fan base, even with his East Tennessee ties. A sub-.500 coaching record and an extreme lack of Power 5 coaching experience in any capacity, would make this a very blah hire.
Regardless of who Danny White decides to name as the next head coach, they will have a lot of work to do.
