Tennessee appears to be wasting little time in hiring a defensive coordinator.
Two days after Josh Heupel announced the firing of Tim Banks following their five seasons together in Knoxville, the Volunteers head coach was closing in Wednesday on hiring Jim Knowles.
Knowles spent this season as defensive coordinator at Penn State, where he had college football’s top salary among assistant coaches at $3.1 million. He moved to Happy Valley after working the 2022-24 seasons under Ryan Day at Ohio State.
ESPN reported late Wednesday afternoon that Knowles was negotiating his buyout at Penn State and is “expected to land at Tennessee.”
The Buckeyes under the guidance of Knowles allowed only 11.2 points per game in 2023, finishing second in the Football Bowl Subdivision in that category. Ohio State led the nation last season, giving up 12.9 points per contest, when the Buckeyes won the national championship by rolling through the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff.
Ohio State opened last season’s playoff with a 42-17 throttling of Tennessee in Columbus.
Knowles has head-coaching experience, having guided Cornell to a 26-34 record during the 2004-09 seasons. He then became Duke’s defensive coordinator from 2010-17 and held the same role at Oklahoma State from 2018-21.
The Vols were sixth nationally in total defense (allowing 293.2 yards per game) and seventh in scoring defense (yielding 16.1 points per contest) last year, when they went 10-2 in the regular season and Banks was a finalist for the Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant coach. The Vols did not allow 20 points in any game last year until the 10th contest, when they fell 31-17 at Georgia.
This season’s Tennessee team plummeted to 88th in total defense (395.5) and 92nd in scoring defense (28.8).
Staley honored
Tennessee receiver Braylon Staley was named Wednesday as the Southeastern Conference’s freshman of the year as voted on by league coaches.
The 6-foot, 190-pound redshirt freshman from Aiken, South Carolina, had 64 catches for 806 yards (12.6 yards per catch) and six touchdowns during Tennessee’s 8-4 regular season.
McCoy declares
Vols junior cornerback Jermod McCoy, who tore his anterior cruciate ligament in January and never played this season, announced Wednesday night that he is forgoing his remaining eligibility and is entering the 2026 NFL draft.
“Even though my time on the field was cut short, I will be forever grateful for my time here at the University of Tennessee,” McCoy posted on Instagram. “It has been a true honor, and I’m appreciative for every moment I had in the orange and white.”
The 6-foot, 193-pounder from Whitehouse, Texas, began his college career at Oregon State and only played for the Vols during the 2024 season, but he made the most of it. McCoy tallied 44 tackles, nine pass breakups and four interceptions, including acrobatic catches against Alabama and Vanderbilt.
McCoy this past summer was named a preseason All-American by the Associated Press and ESPN.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.