KNOXVILLE – Derek Dooley is in the final stages of trying to fill his 2012 recruiting class, but the Tennessee football coach is trying to fill out his coaching staff as well.
He might have taken a big step in accomplishing the latter Thursday.
Former NFL assistant Charlie Coiner is in line to become the Volunteers’ special teams coach, a source inside the UT program confirmed to the Times Free Press on Thursday afternoon. UT did not announce the hiring, but Coiner would replace Eric Russell, who left last month to become the special teams coordinator and assistant head coach at Washington State.
Coiner would be the fifth assistant Dooley has hired this offseason, leaving one vacancy on the defensive staff.
The 51-year-old most recently coached the defensive line at North Carolina, where he was hired by Tar Heels coach Butch Davis in September 2010 following four seasons as the Buffalo Bills’ tight ends coach. Coiner’s NFL coaching career began in Chicago, where he started as the Bears’ offensive quality control coach in 2001 and was the team’s assistant special teams coach for two seasons (2004-05).