KNOXVILLE - Tennessee's search for departed offensive coordinator Mike DeBord's replacement could be narrowing after coach Butch Jones and the Volunteers hosted two candidates for on-campus interviews this past weekend.
Former Florida State quarterback Chris Weinke and Utah State assistant Mike Canales met with Jones and Tennessee's offensive staff, including tight ends coach Larry Scott, who appears in line for a promotion that could include play-calling duties.
Tennessee could opt for co-coordinator titles, but Jones made it clear last week the ability to develop quarterbacks was the primary attribute he was looking for in potential candidates, and the search has trended toward hiring a quarterbacks coach.
Weinke, who led the Seminoles to the 1999 national championship and won the Heisman Trophy the following season, just completed his second season as an NFL assistant and quarterbacks coach for the Rams, who fired coach Jeff Fisher in December.
Prior to his college football career, Weinke played six seasons of minor league baseball after the Toronto Blue Jays drafted him in the second round in 1989. He was 32-3 as a starting quarterback at Florida State, was taken by Carolina in the fourth round of the 2001 NFL draft and spent seven seasons in the league, the final one a three-game stint with the San Francisco 49ers.
In 2010, Weinke became the director of football at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., where he helped multiple quarterbacks - including Teddy Bridgewater, Cam Newton and Russell Wilson - train for the NFL draft. That school has become a recruiting hotbed with 10 prospects ranked among Rivals' top 250 for 2017 and six of the top 110 in 2016.
Canales just finished his first season as assistant head coach and running backs coach at his alma mater. He spent the previous six seasons as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at North Texas. He was the program's interim head coach in 2010 and 2015, when the Mean Green lost 24-0 to the Vols with Canales at the helm.
From 2007 to '09, he was offensive coordinator at South Florida, where he worked with Scott. His résumé also includes a three-year stint as Arizona's offensive coordinator, one season as wide receivers coach for the New York Jets under Herm Edwards and two years as quarterbacks coach at North Carolina State during the sophomore and junior seasons of Philip Rivers, now a veteran NFL quarterback.
Tennessee could meet with more candidates this week - the American Football Coaches Association's annual convention began Sunday in Nashville.
"We've been through this before and we've actually been through this pretty much at this time of year," Jones said last week. "I think the big thing you want to do is you can't rush. We're going to be very, very patient. We're going to take our time, and when we find the right individual, we find the right individual. This obviously is a very, very critical hire. You have to make sure you get in front of that person and really get to know them.
"The University of Tennessee is a place where people want to be. It's a destination place. It's going to be a challenge even to return all the text messages already that I've received. I think people around the country, with just the amount of interest, they understand what we're building here and what we have here, and they want to be a part of it. But again, it's doing the right fit and getting the right fit for everything."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.