University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football coach Tom Arth wasn’t going to make a hasty decision after learning that assistant head coach and outside linebackers coach Shelton Felton was leaving for another job.
Steve Donatell gave him a solid replacement option.
Arth tabbed the 24-year-old Donatell as the successor to Felton, who recently left to take a quality control assistant position at the University of Tennessee. Donatell was set to enter this season as a volunteer assistant with the Mocs after spending the 2017 season as a tight end on the Seattle Seahawks’ practice squad. He played at Wake Forest and Western Kentucky, spending time as both a tight end and an outside linebacker with Wake’s Demon Deacons.
His father, Ed, has spent nearly 40 years in coaching, with 28 of the last 29 seasons in the NFL. He was the Denver Broncos’ defensive backs coach when they won back-to-back Super Bowls in the late 1990s, and he spent seven years as a defensive coordinator.
Ed Donatell currently is the defensive backs coach with the Chicago Bears, where Brandon Staley – Arth’s first defensive coordinator with the Mocs – serves as the outside linebackers coach.
“It’s funny how things work out,” Arth said of the younger Donatell’s new position. “He came three or four times to work with the players over the summertime, and I invited him to come to camp if he didn’t get an invitation for a (pro training) camp invite. The next thing you know, here’s an opportunity.
“He had done a really fantastic job. We had put him with the inside linebackers originally, and he had built this incredible relationship with the freshmen in that group. They became very comfortable with him. Now we’ve transitioned him to outside linebackers, and he’s really gotten that group to believe and trust in him. He’s got a really special way about him; he’s going to be an incredible coach.
“I know he’s still hoping to play, but he has all the traits that someone like me looks for in a coach.”
Donatell called the opportunity “a blessing” that he never thought would be possible when he first got to Chattanooga. He inherits a group full of underclassmen, three of whom have starting experience: juniors Michael Bean, Khayyan Edwards and Hawk Schrider.
“(Defensive coordinator Matt) Feeney has been a great help. We’re taking this head on together and working through things together, and I look forward to the opportunity,” Donatell said. “It’s a challenge obviously – it’s strange at times because I’m only a couple of years older than these guys – but all the guys have tremendous respect for Coach Feeney and I as well, so it’s been good to get to know these guys and get ready for next Thursday.”
He said growing up with a defensive-minded coach helped teach him a number of things that he’ll be able to use. And he noted that his father sends him clips and offers “tips and pointers” to help the younger Donatell maximize the potential of his position group on game day.
Felton had been the only defensive coach who remained at his current position from 2017, with Feeney moving from inside linebackers coach to coordinator after 2017 coordinator Tom Kaufman, defensive line coach Brian Cochran and defensive backs coach Jonathan Cooley left for Kent State in the offseason.
Since Arth took over in December of 2016, he has had three defensive coordinators (Staley, Kaufman and Feeney); three outside linebackers coaches (Demarcus Covington, now with the New England Patriots, plus Felton and Donatell); three defensive backs coaches (Cooley, Zac Etheridge, who’s now at Louisiana-Lafayette, and Jeremiah Wilson); two defensive line coaches (Cochran and Davern Williams); and a pair of inside linebacker coaches (Feeney and Oscar Rodriguez).
Felton came to UTC from Georgia’s Crisp County High School, where he had engineered a 10-win improvement from his first season to his second, which ended in the state semifinals.
“Shelton is someone that meant a lot to me personally – someone I relied heavily on, our team relied heavily on,” Arth said. “He meant a lot to us in more ways than just a coach, and that’s why he has this opportunity and why he will continue to have great opportunities in his coaching career. He’s going to be where he wants to be in a very short amount of time, and we wish him all the best.
“We’re very grateful and thankful for what he has done for the program and the players, but we’ve got to adjust, got to move on, and the players have done a fantastic job of that. Certainly they were disappointed to hear he was leaving, but we bounced right back, had a great practice that day and an even better one the day after, and they’re in a great place now.
“We feel great about Steve and his contributions to the program. We will not miss a beat.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.