KNOXVILLE - Tennessee's new running backs coach competed against Michael Jordan in baseball, won a Heisman Trophy and suffered a serious neck injury that had an impact on Tennessee's most recent football national championship.
Chris Weinke, who is expected to be announced as the replacement for running backs coach Robert Gillespie on Tennessee's staff, was the starting quarterback on Florida State's 1998 team until a neck injury ended his season that November.
The Seminoles made it to the national championship game without their star quarterback, but once they got there Tennessee's defense had a good game against Weinke's backup, Marcus Outzen, and the Volunteers won 23-16.
Weinke was rehabilitating from a ruptured disk in his neck at the time after undergoing spinal surgery in the days following his injury. The recovery was trying, but it went well enough that Weinke led Florida State to a national championship victory in 1999.
He won the Heisman Trophy as a senior in 2000, when the Seminoles lost in the national final.
Now 45, Weinke spent last season as an offensive analyst on the Alabama staff that included new Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt. Weinke previously served as quarterbacks coach of the St. Louis Rams.
The Minnesota native played six years of minor league baseball before resuming his football career at Florida State.
This won't be the first time he has lived in Knoxville. Weinke was playing first base for the Knoxville Smokies in 1994 when Michael Jordan got his first career hit while playing for the Birmingham Barons during his hiatus from professional basketball.
Weinke hit .248 during his baseball career and never made it past the Triple-A level.
Pruitt parted ways with Gillespie early this week. Gillespie had been the only holdover on the Tennessee staff from the Butch Jones era.
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.