KNOXVILLE - Tennessee is closing in on the hire of a quarterbacks coach to accompany its in-house promotion of a new offensive coordinator.
After interviewing a second time with the head coach Butch Jones, Utah State assistant Mike Canales is the favorite to join the Volunteers as the quarterbacks coach.
Tight ends coach Larry Scott will be Tennessee's new offensive coordinator.
Canales and Scott, who both have experience as interim head coaches, previously worked together at South Florida for three seasons (2007-09), and Scott's playing career with the Bulls also coincides with Canales's first stint in Tampa (1996-2000).
Though Scott has no coordinator experience at the college level, he impressed in the interim role at Miami in 2015, when he guided the Hurricanes to a 4-2 finish after the midseason ousting of Al Golden, and the Vols plucked the Florida native out from his home state last January.
Scott was involved in the game-planning this season with offensive coordinator Mike DeBord and sat in the coaching booth during games as Tennessee finished second in the SEC in scoring at 36 points per game.
He has aspirations of becoming a head coach in the future and was in the mix for the jobs at Florida Atlantic and South Florida, his alma mater, in December.
It became clear shortly after DeBord's departure for Indiana that Jones was going to tab Scott as his new coordinator, and the search focused almost entirely on quarterbacks coaches.
After early mutual interest between Tennessee and both former Oregon coach Mark Helfrich and Carolina Panthers quarterbacks coach Ken Dorsey, who won a national championship at Miami as a quarterback, Jones and Scott met with Canales and two NFL assistant coaches, among others.
Former Florida State and NFL quarterback Chris Weinke spent the past two seasons with the St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams after working for five years as the football director at IMG Academy, the Florida high school that's become a recruiting hotbed in recent years.
Kevin O'Connell played at San Diego State before a brief career in the NFL, and after a one-year stint as the Cleveland Browns quarterbacks coach he worked for Chip Kelly and the San Francisco 49ers this past season.
Weinke was believed to have strong interest in joining Tennessee's staff, but O'Connell was the other finalist alongside Canales despite his interest in remaining the NFL ranks, as many NFL assistant coaches are opting to do to avoid the recruiting required as a college coach.
A smiling Butch Jones is embraced by North Texas Interim Head Coach Mike Canales following Tennessee's 24-0 win in Neyland Stadium.Of the coaches to interview for the job, Jones has the closest and longest relationship with Canales, who was the interim coach at North Texas when the Mean Green lost 24-0 at Tennessee in 2015, and he called him "a great friend of mine" during the week leading up to that game.
"I have known him for a very long period of time," Jones said. "I have admired him as a play caller, as a quarterbacks coach and as an offensive coordinator. He has done a great job in a difficult situation."
Canales just finished his first season as the assistant head coach and running backs at his alma mater. He spent the past six seasons (2010-15) at North Texas as the Mean Green's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks. He twice took over the program on an interim basis in 2010 and 2015.
The 55-year-old's lengthy resume also includes a three-year stint (2004-06) as Arizona's offensive coordinator, one season (2003) as the wide receivers coach for the NFL's New York Jets under Herm Edwards and a two-year tenure (2001-02) as the quarterbacks coach at North Carolina State during the sophomore and junior seasons of future NFL star Philip Rivers.
It's already been a busy offseason for Tennessee, which already tabbed a new strength coach in 17-year NFL coaching veteran Rock Gullickson and swapped Willie Martinez for North Carolina's Charlton Warren as defensive backs coach.
The contracts for two more coaches - Don Mahoney (offensive line) and Steve Stripling (defensive line) - will expire at the end of the next month, so changes are likely there, too.
Quality control coach Walt Wells, who worked with Tennessee's offensive line this season and is considered a possible replacement for Mahoney, was selected to be the Vols' ninth assistant allowed to recruit off-campus since DeBord's departure.
If Canales is hired and starts immediately, however, Wells would have to come off the road unless another staff vacancy comes open.
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.