Vols Football: 10 Coaches That Could Replace Butch Jones In 2018

Chip Kelly

Former head coach of San Francisco 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles, and Oregon Ducks

Ok let’s go ahead and get the obvious name out of the way.

In the last decade or so, there have been very few hires in college football that were absolute sure things.

Nick Saban at Alabama, Jim Harbaugh at Michigan, and Urban Meyer at Ohio State come to mind.

Those are all guys that you knew would have major success (no one knew Saban would be as dominant as he’s been, but it was no surprise that he’s been elite).

Chip Kelly is one of those guys.

Kelly had tremendous success at Oregon, losing only four games in his final three seasons.

Of course there’s a bit of risk with hiring Kelly. He left Oregon for the NFL after the 2012 season amid an NCAA investigation, which resulted in Kelly receiving an 18 month show cause penalty.

Kelly won ten games in each of his first two seasons in the NFL, but it went downhill from there. He was fired earlier this month for the second time in a little more than a year.

There’s a good chance that Kelly sits out the 2017 season. The only collegiate job opening (doubtful Kelly gets another head coaching job in the NFL right now) that might pique Kelly’s interest is the California job.

And we all know that Kelly probably has his sights set way higher than coaching at Cal (no offense Cuonzo Martin).