Tennessee's football program entered this week having sustained only two coaching departures during the Josh Heupel era that began in 2021.
The Volunteers have encountered two more.
After losing running backs coach Jerry Mack to the same role with the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars on Monday, the Vols on Thursday bid farewell to linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary. The first defensive departure under Heupel is heading back to Michigan, where he will serve as the linebackers coach and defensive run game coordinator under new Wolverines head coach Sherrone Moore.
Jean-Mary spent the 2020 season at Michigan coaching linebackers under Jim Harbaugh, and that 2020 stop followed linebacker coaching stints at Georgia Tech (2004-09), Louisville (2010-13), Texas (2014-16) and the University of South Florida (2017-19).
During his three years with the Vols that yielded a 27-12 record, including a 20-6 mark the past two years, Jean-Mary worked with the likes of Aaron Beasley, Jeremy Banks and Elijah Herring while also having to overcome season-ending injuries to promising transfers such as Juwan Mitchell in 2021 and Keenan Pili this past season.
More importantly, Jean-Mary helped defensive coordinator Tim Banks upgrade a unit that ranked 99th nationally in yardage allowed during the 2021 season (421.7 per game), 93rd in 2022 (405.3) and 33rd this past season (335.2).
Tennessee's first two departures of the Heupel era were receivers coach Kodi Burns, who left after the 2021 season for the same role with the New Orleans Saints, and offensive coordinator Alex Golesh, who left after the 2022 regular season to become head coach at USF.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.