KNOXVILLE – Throughout the offseason, Butch Jones made it clear Tennessee needed to be a more explosive football team to chase loftier goals.
It was up to Michael Szerszen to deliver the version of the Volunteers their fourth-year head coach wanted.
Szerszen, Tennessee’s associate director of strength and conditioning, took over daily duties with the football team in March. Szerszen – who had served as head strength and conditioning coach Dave Lawson’s right-hand man the past three years – hooked up with Jones at the University of Cincinnati in 2010 after stops at West Virginia, Army and Eastern Michigan.
This summer, Szerszen molded the Vols leading into preseason practices this month.
“We wanted to give them the best possible product,” Szerszen said last week.