KNOXVILLE - Finding out his flight was delayed back to Knoxville from Charlotte's Douglas International Airport after a week of traveling and recruiting did little to diminish Larry Scott's Friday afternoon.
Time probably flew by because his phone was buzzing with congratulatory calls and text messages in need of replies.
Tennessee promoted Scott, its tight ends coach and special teams coordinator, to offensive coordinator and announced the hiring of Utah State assistant coach Mike Canales as its quarterbacks coach on Friday.
"I'll tell you what, man, it feels pretty good," Scott said, the excitement still evident in his demeanor as he met with the media upon returning to Knoxville.
"You spend all your career working hard, being diligent, trying to be out in front of everything, cutting edge, learning as much as you can everywhere you go (and) taking every experience and opportunity as a learning opportunity so that one day these types of opportunities present themselves."
The Volunteers needed a new offensive coordinator when Mike DeBord opted for Indiana instead of retirement, and though Scott said he learned of his promotion Friday, head coach Butch Jones decided early on to promote Scott and focused his search on a quarterbacks coach.
Canales spent the past season at his alma mater after six years at North Texas, and his 32-year coaching career includes stops at Arizona and North Carolina State, one year in the NFL with the New York Jets and two stints at South Florida, where he crossed paths with Scott.
Scott's playing career with the Bulls coincided with Canales' first stint in Tampa, and the two also coached together for three years (2007-09) under Jim Leavitt. Canales was the offensive coordinator, while Scott handled the tight ends and then the offensive line. The Bulls were 25-14 and rose into the top 10 of the rankings, including to No. 2, in two of those seasons.
Canales knew then success was in Scott's future.
"There was no doubt in my mind," he said. "You could see it happen. His work ethic was - you don't see it often. It's hard to match what he does, because he was willing to come to work every morning and he was willing to stay late and burn the midnight oil to find a way to get it done.
"He had great ideas. We'd always draw ideas on the board, and he had some great ideas on how to move the football. I'm excited for him. I'm excited to be his supporting cast and help him do this. It's going to be fun to watch him be successful."
After spending eight seasons at his alma mater, Scott went to Miami, and in 2015 he was named the interim head coach following the midseason ouster of Al Golden and guided the Hurricanes to a 4-2 finish before joining Tennessee's staff.
The experience with Miami got him into the mix for the head coaching vacancies at Florida Atlantic and South Florida in December and certainly increased his chances of a promotion at Tennessee, particularly with Jones wanting to keep his own system in place.
"I think he'll be successful no matter what he does," Canales said. "He's got it in his blood. He works as hard and tireless as anyone I've ever been around. He knows work ethic. We learned that from Jim Leavitt. That's one thing we learned from Jim, was work ethic. We'd get there early in the morning and we probably wouldn't leave till 12 or 1 o'clock in the morning.
"We just knew how to work. We knew we were going to find a way to get it done and get our kids to believe and play for each other. That's what he did. He'll be in that situation where good things will happen."
Scott has no experience as a collegiate coordinator, but he insisted he's well-prepared to step into the role. He said he's been involved in play-calling and game-planning at each of his previous stops. He sat alongside DeBord in the coaches' booth during games during the 2016 season.
"I've always fancied myself with football and being a really good football coach," he said. "I've never been a guy that always wanted to pigeonhole myself into I'm just this, I'm just an O-line guy, I'm just a receivers guy, I'm just a running backs guy. As you can see by my resume I've done a lot of different things on offense and gotten involved with special teams.
"Football is something I fell in love with at a very young age. The opportunities that come your way, that are presented to you, hopefully are just because it's time and you deserve those opportunities and you've worked your way into those situations and it's what's best for the program moving forward.
"You grab the bull by the horns and you take off and you go, whatever role that is."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.