Tennessee Coaching Search Update

The coaching carousel continues to spin. Round and round it goes where it stops nobody knows. As long as it’s been spinning, and it feels like it’s been a while, we don’t appear to be any closer to finding out who will be named Tennessee’s next offensive coordinator than we were when the process began.

I guess the good news is, if you prefer to call it that, we can mark several candidates of the list.

Rob Spence, currently Clemson’s offensive coordinator, turned down the Vols initially, but word today is that Fulmer went back and offered him more money. Spence, in turn, said thanks but no thanks for the second time. The third time’s a charm?

Kippy Brown was a name at the top of the likely candidate list for a while. We’ve since learned that the Lions have promoted Kippy and given him more money to stay in Detroit. The joke around town is that Tennessee helped him get a raise.

Frank Cignetti, the quarterbacks coach for the San Francisco 49’ers, interviewed with coach Fulmer last week. ESPN then reported Cignetti has decided to stay on the west coast. He accepted a position on Jeff Tedford’s staff at California.

Where does that leave Tennessee at this point in the search? I don’t have any idea and I’m not even going to speculate at this point. In all seriousness, right now you might have to consider Greg Adkins or Phil Fulmer himself as leading candidates. I honestly don’t believe Fulmer wants to take on the role of calling plays, but he has commented that it’s something he considered so I’m not going to completely rule it out. Hopefully more names will surface in he next couple of days.

Scot Loeffler, formerly on Michigan’s staff, is another candidate that most agree Fulmer met with while he was in Tampa. However, Loeffler is most likely being considered as a position coach and not a coordinator. Also keep an eye on Erik Campbell. He was the Wide Receivers Coach and Assistant Head Coach for Michigan under Lloyd Carr.

Another name that’s being thrown around today as a possible position coach is Stan Drayton. Currently, Drayton is the running backs coach at Florida. He is thought to be a good coach and a very good recruiter. What’s the connection? Bruce Warwick, Tennessee’s Assistant AD of Football Operations, and Drayton both worked for the Green Bay Packers during the same time period.

One other thing to watch for this week is the coaches convention. At one point it was reported that Fulmer planned on attending. Later, we were told Phil was thought to have his guy in place and would not be going. His attendance, or lack thereof, at that convention could possibly give us a hint as to where he stands in this coaching search.