KNOXVILLE - Tennessee football coach Butch Jones recalled from the main stage at the Southeastern Conference's media days event last week that he received a phone call from first-year defensive line coach Brady Hoke on July 4, when Hoke was on vacation with his family.
"He's talking about the dynamics of our staff and how great our staff is and how this is going to be a great year and how he loves working with the kids and everything that we're doing," Jones said of the phone call.
Jones used the conversation with Hoke as an illustration of the relationships he said are developing among a staff that features four assistants who have been college head coaches.
Summer is a time when college football coaches often find positive elements of their programs to highlight as the season approaches. One such storyline around Knoxville this offseason has been the apparent cohesiveness of a vastly overhauled group of coaches who will run their first preseason practice together a week from today.
Tennessee defensive line coach Brady Hoke checks on players at the Orange and White game in April at Neyland Stadium. Hoke, who is also associate head coach entering his first season with the Vols, has 12 years of experience as a Division I head coach.EXPERIENCE MATTERS
Tennessee’s new assistant coachesWide receivers coach Kevin Beard: spent 2016 as offensive quality control assistant at GeorgiaQuarterbacks coach Mike Canales: spent 2016 as a Utah State assistantDefensive line coach Brady Hoke: spent 2016 as Oregon defensive coordinatorOffensive coordinator Larry Scott: promoted from tight ends and special teams coachDefensive backs coach Charlton Warren: spent 2016 as defensive backs coach at North CarolinaOffensive line coach Walt Wells: promoted from offensive quality control assistant
"We've assembled a big-league staff," second-year defensive coordinator Bob Shoop said Friday. "Most importantly, it's a good group of men, teachers, leaders, role models, mentors, all that stuff, who happen to be football coaches.
"I really like this staff, not that I didn't like the previous staff. This is a good staff. There's not a day when we don't enjoy working together."
Shoop spent three years, 2003-05, as the head coach at Ivy League member Columbia. New quarterbacks coach Mike Canales twice served as the interim head coach at North Texas. Newly promoted offensive coordinator Larry Scott led Miami to a 4-2 record during six games as the interim coach there in 2015.
Hoke was head coach at Ball State and San Diego State before a four-year stint at Michigan.
Having led a historically proud Power Five conference program at Michigan, Hoke knows firsthand the scrutiny Jones faces as he enters his fifth year at Tennessee. The former Big Ten coach of the year praised Jones for the group of assistants he has assembled.
"I think the staff and guys he's surrounded himself are really good men, number one," Hoke said before recalling his July 4 call to Jones from a Charleston beach. "I think they are all in it for the right reason, and that's the kids you coach every day. I think he's done a tremendous job, and it's fun to be part of it."
The revamped staff is turning heads in recruiting, having assembled the nation's No. 4 ranked recruiting class for 2018 with 20 verbal commitments so far, according to 247Sports.com. The Volunteers were picked third on the field in the SEC East at media days after going through spring practice with just a shell of the roster that will report for preseason practice next week.
Tennessee's 15 spring practices were key for the new group of coaches, even though most of this year's freshman class had not arrived and many returning players were rehabbing from injuries.
"There were a lot of dynamics," Scott said of the spring. "(It was) the first time you're out there with new quarterbacks, a new staff and a new way of looking at things and doing things. It was really first about bridging the areas together and getting everyone on the same page. A lot of that took place in the meeting rooms before we ever got out on the field."
Canales was Scott's offensive coordinator when Scott was an offensive lineman at South Florida in the late 1990s. They later worked together as assistants at South Florida. First-year wide receivers coach Kevin Beard also worked with Scott: The two coached at Miami together.
There was little familiarity on the defensive side of the ball, however. Shoop and Hoke, though familiar with each other from time spent in the Big Ten, were coaching together for the first time along with fifth-year linebackers coach Tommy Thigpen and first-year defensive backs coach Charlton Warren.
Despite their different backgrounds, they all have at least one thing in common: They answer to the same boss.
"Coach Jones allows his staff to do their jobs," Shoop said. "That's what he does a really good job of to me. He manages things well. He's an excellent communicator, a delegator, a leader. He sets, to me, the culture. He sets the identity of the team, and it's our job to reinforce that message. That's what's been good."
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com.