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Tennessee Football: Top 5 Candidates Who Should Replace Mike DeBord as Vols Offensive Coordinator
Sep 24, 2016; Knoxville, TN, USA; General view of the Tennessee Volunteers running through the T before the game against the Florida Gators at Neyland Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
Tennessee football needs a new offensive coordinator after Mike DeBord’s departure for Indiana. Here are the five best candidates the Volunteers could get.
For the third time in as many years, Tennessee football is in search of a new coordinator on one side of the ball. It’s the second time in three years that the Vols are looking for a new offensive coordinator.
After two years with the program, Mike DeBord is leaving to take the same job with the Indiana Hoosiers.
DeBord did many good things while in Knoxville. He helped Butch Jones return Tennessee football to a Top 25 program, and he oversaw one of the most productive quarterbacks in school history.
However, many fans felt that the offense was lacking at certain points considering all the weapons DeBord had. Now, with him gone, the possibilities could be endless.
As we get set to take a look at the top candidates out there who should replace DeBord as Tennessee’s offensive coordinator, there are a few criteria we are using to measure each one.
For starters, they have to have coordinating experience. All due respect to Larry Scott and Zach Azzanni, Tennessee should never be a place where you get your start as a coordinator unless you were a position coach there first and won a national title.
That’s not the case for either of those guys.
The coordinator should also have a proven track record of some success somewhere.
Finally, needs to have solid experience dealing with Butch Jones’s spread offense in the modern college football game. At times, DeBord seemed to have trouble adjusting to that since his experience was always in pro-style power offenses.
That can’t happen again.
So with those three criteria, we have five clear candidates who could be the next Tennessee football offensive coordinator. Here is how they rank from worst to best.
Oct 24, 2015; Waco, TX, USA; Baylor Bears head coach Art Briles during the fight song following a game against the Iowa State Cyclones at McLane Stadium. Baylor won 45-27. Mandatory Credit: Ray Carlin-USA TODAY Sports
5. Art Briles
If you’re simply looking for the best offensive mind in college football when it comes to the spread, you can’t get much better than Art Briles.
From Robert Griffin III to Bryce Petty to Seth Russell, he had a history of turning quarterbacks into college superstars while with the Baylor Bears, and he broke tons of offensive records in the process.
With his firing from there along with his desperation to get back into the game, there’s no way he wouldn’t accept this offer.
And he’d be a surefire hit. However, the downside is obvious, and it’s why he’s No. 5 instead of No 1.
Briles’s failure to deal with the sexual assault accusations against some of his players at Baylor is nearly unforgivable, and he has not done an adequate job yet of proving that he made any effort to stop it.
With Tennessee not even a year removed from settling a sexual assault lawsuit of its own, Briles’s baggage is the last thing they would want, especially with Butch Jones making such an effort to turn around the football program’s reputation.
However, Briles would just be a coordinator, not the face of the program. And the details of his involvement in Baylor’s scandal are still a bit hazy.
So Tennessee football might be able to pull this off. Briles is one of only two sure successes as a coordinator on this list when it comes to winning.
That means the Vols would have to way those upsides against his potential baggage. And that potential baggage drops him here.
Sep 12, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Southern California Trojans receivers coach Tee Martin during the game against the Idaho Vandals at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
4. Tee Martin
Well, the upsides are beyond obvious here. You can’t find a more beloved former Tennessee football player than Tee Martin with very few exceptions. After all, he won the Vols a national championship in 1998.
Martin is also one of the most proven recruiters in the sport. So getting him to Knoxville would be a huge boost in that regard as well.
Then there’s his success. In his first year as offensive coordinator, Martin oversaw a USC Trojans offense that was in the Top 20 nationally in yards gained and in the Top 40 in points per game. That all came with a freshman quarterback starting nine of the games.
In fact, with that freshman, Sam Darnold, the numbers went up, so they are actually skewed against him.
Martin’s ability to maximize Darnold’s talent down the stretch counts for a lot, and he’s already one of the hottest coaching prospects out there.
However, there are some downsides.
For starters, he has already turned down the Vols under Butch Jones to stay at USC once. Why would he not do it again, especially when there’s no promotion involved and he’s got Darnold coming back?
It wouldn’t be the smart career move yet.
At the same time, Martin is still a bit unproven. He’s only been coaching as an offensive coordinator for a year, and while he employs elements of the spread, it’s not a full-blown spread.
That could create issues in Butch Jones’s offense, and it’s why he’s No. 4.
But despite that, he has so many upsides. A final upside is Martin’s ability to call close games. He showed that with USC’s epic comeback win over the Penn State Nittany Lions in the Rose Bowl shootout.
And speaking of Penn State, they have a guy on our list as well.
Apr 16, 2016; University Park, PA, USA; Penn State Nittany Lions offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Joe Moorhead looks on during a warmup prior to the Blue White spring game at Beaver Stadium. The Blue team defeated the White team 37-0. Mandatory Credit: Matthew
3. Joe Moorhead
The offensive coordinator on the other side of the Rose Bowl was not so bad either. Tennessee football stole away Penn State’s defensive coordinator last year in Bob Shoop, who brought mixed reviews to Vols fans.
But that doesn’t mean they can’t steal away the Nittany Lions’ new offensive coordinator now.
He would be going to a weaker division if he left Penn State for Tennessee and would be more likely to star as an offensive mind, so Butch Jones could definitely lure him away.
And as impressive as Tee Martin was this year, Moorhead was more impressive.
Before Moorhead arrived in Happy Valley, James Franklin’s first two teams Penn State both had offenses ranked outside of the Top 100. And that happened with a five-star quarterback and future NFL Draft pick in Christian Hackenberg (although Hackenberg is the most overrated and mentally weakest player ever).
Yet this year, with a three-star athlete playing quarterback who is barely six feet in Trace McSorley, Moorhead implemented his spread/pro-style mix of an offense and turned the Nittany Lions into a Top 30 offense overall, improving them dramatically.
There’s no way to understate how impressive that is.
Moorhead is clearly an offensive genius, evidenced by the unprecedented success he had at Fordham as head coach for four years and his success with the UCONN Huskies, where his offensive mind allowed a terrible coach like Randy Edsall to take a terrible program like Connecticut to a BCS bowl.
So yes, you can’t get much better than him. And if Butch Jones could lure Moorhead to Knoxville, that would be amazing. But he’s not the most proven guy on here.
Nov 28, 2015; Starkville, MS, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs quarterback Dak Prescott (15) makes a pass during the first quarter of the game against the Mississippi Rebels at Davis Wade Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports
2. Billy Gonzales
If you want to stay inside the SEC with the hire, Billy Gonzales out of Mississippi State is your man. Clearly this Urban Meyer/Dan Mullen coaching tree is a thing of beauty when it comes to offensive coordinators.
But Gonzales might be the most proven coordinator there is among the bunch.
Mullen made him offensive coordinator in 2014. Anybody remember what happened that year? With no offensive line, Gonzales turned Dak Prescott into a Heisman candidate while leading the Bulldogs to a No. 1 ranking overall in the country, and they were one bad half away from making the College Football Playoff.
Remember, this is Mississippi State, the worst program in the SEC West! And with limited resources, McSorley led the Bulldogs to a Top 10 offense in all of college football.
The next year they fell off after losing tons of weapons, but he still kept the offense in the Top 40.
Then, this year, with an entirely brand new cast of characters and Prescott gone to the NFL, he turned Nick Fitzgerald into an elite SEC quarterback down the stretch and, with no help from the defense, nearly got a rebuilding Bulldogs team back to a winning record just because of his side of the ball.
Gonzales is a proven success as offensive coordinator who has now shown that he can develop quarterbacks for the NFL and can keep the worst program in the SEC West competitive with the top programs there with his offenses.
That counts for a lot, and most Mississippi State fans are pretty excited about the future of their offense under Fitzgerald, Prescott’s replacement.
Imagine what he could do with better recruits in a weaker division!
You know that Gonzales would jump at the opportunity to be the Tennessee football offensive coordinator, and Butch Jones should seriously consider it.
He has all the elements of the spread offense you want, and at Tennessee, he would have the talent.
Nov 26, 2016; Corvallis, OR, USA; Oregon Ducks head coach Mark Helfrich walks onto the field before the game against the Oregon State Beavers at Reser Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Scott Olmos-USA TODAY Sports
1. Mark Helfrich
This is really a no-brainer. All the other guys on the list are great, but none of them have the track record that Mark Helfrich does as offensive coordinator.
The recently fired head coach from the Oregon Ducks never had a problem putting up tons of points and turning games into basketball scores. With the Vols already halfway in on the spread under Butch Jones along with their belief in analytics, why not go all-in?
Helfrich from Oregon would take them all-in and bring Pac-12 offenses into the SEC.
Remember that he took over as offensive coordinator in 2009 when Chip Kelly became head coach, and while before he got there the Ducks would have a Top 10 offense every few years, he turned them into a Top 5 offense every year from 2010 through 2015.
And no, it wasn’t all with Marcus Mariota. Remember, before that he had Darren Thomas, who led the Ducks to the No. 1 offense overall in 2010 and the national championship game, where they came within a field goal of winning.
He also did it in 2015 with Vernon Adams Jr., who is more of a pocket passer. So he showed his ability to adapt to different styles of quarterbacks and keep the offense elite.
In fact, while he took bits of brilliance from Chip Kelly, he then passed on his own information to Scott Frost, who used his bright offensive mind to lead an unprecedented turnaround as a head coach in Orlando with the UCF Knights.
This year, with a new offensive coordinator and a brand new cast of characters, the offense naturally took a huge drop-off.
But it still remained in the Top 30 in the nation in what was clearly a fluke year if you look at Helfrich’s overall body of work.
If he could put up those numbers at Oregon, imagine what he could do with SEC talent that Tennessee football is able to recruit, especially when there are so many other bad coaches in the conference that aren’t used to seeing his style on a weekly basis.
This would be incredible to watch.
As a result, Butch Jones needs to hire Helfrich immediately. We saw at Oregon that it may take a year for his offense to be fully installed, but given that Joshua Dobbs just graduated, the Vols have time.
Helfrich is the dream coordinator anybody would want. He actually is a more proven offensive mind in college than Kelly is.
So Jones should snag him now while he has the chance. There is no better choice to be the new Tennessee football offensive coordinator.
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