There was no known movement on Tennessee's assistant football coaching front Wednesday, but a former player soon could be headed to a rival school.
Henry To'o To'o, who led the Volunteers in tackles this past season as a sophomore linebacker but entered the NCAA transfer portal last month after the termination of head coach Jeremy Pruitt, inside linebackers coach Brian Niedermeyer and outside linebackers coach Shelton Felton, is favoring Alabama as his next destination. The 6-foot-2, 225-pounder from Sacramento, California, picked the Vols over the Crimson Tide as a top-50 national prospect in the 2019 signing class.
Lese To'o To'o, Henry's father, told 247Sports.com that Alabama coach Nick Saban and defensive coordinator Pete Golding have reached out to his son.
"While I can't speak for Henry, I know after all our discussions that he wants to stay in the SEC," the elder To'o To'o told 247Sports, "and I think he's leaning towards Alabama - I mean heavily leaning towards Alabama. All the other SEC schools reached out to him, too.
"One thing that we talked about was that we chose Tennessee the first time when we should have come to Alabama, so let's not make this mistake twice."
To'o To'o was a bright spot during Tennessee's dismal 3-7 season this past fall, tallying 76 tackles, 10 tackles for loss and a 32-yard interception return for a touchdown in the 31-27 opening win at South Carolina.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.