NFL News NFL News, Reports and Updates
Tennessee football hired two assistant coaches last week. What was your reaction?
My guess is you were enthusiastic about the news.
Fans tend to be optimistic about any changes in their favorite program. And changes haven’t occurred that often in Josh Heupel’s three years as Tennessee’s football coach. So, when his running backs and linebackers coaches decided to move on, Heupel had an opportunity to upgrade his staff.
Maybe, he did. But how can you be sure?
It’s easy to evaluate head coaches. The won-loss record says it all. Ranking coordinators is trickier, though drastically easier than rating position coaches. An offensive coordinator is tied tightly to stats. Points and yards per game might not be as good of a measuring stick as a head coach’s won-loss record but provide a reasonable barometer of success and failure.
Attaching stats to position coaches can be folly, though. If you have a formidable stable of running backs, your rushing stats should soar if you have a competent group of blockers ahead of them.
Also, running back is such an instinctive position. How do you coach a great running back? You hand him the ball and point to the opponent’s goal line while perhaps adding, “Hold it high and tight.”
Tennessee recently lost veteran running backs coach Jerry Mack. It replaced him by hiring De’Rail Sims. Both − like most assistant coaches − are vagabonds.
Mack got his first assistant coaching job as a graduate student in 2004. Since then – except for a three-year run as North Carolina Central’s head coach – he has stayed at a job more than two years only once (the past three seasons on Heupel’s staff). Sims began his coaching career in 2010. He has had eight more jobs since then. His average stay: 1.9 years.
Don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not judging, just pointing out the wandering ways of…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/why-josh-heupel-having-hire-101026983.html
Author : Knox News | The Knoxville News-Sentinel
Publish date : 2024-02-26 10:10:26
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
