Tennessee Vols: A Look At A Potential Tee Martin Staff At UT

The Tennessee Vols are in scramble mode after nearly hiring Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano.

The Tennessee Vols were at rock bottom on Saturday night after they lost to the Vanderbilt Commodores for their eighth loss of the season (first time in program history they’ve lost eight games).

On Sunday, however, Tennessee managed to dig past rock bottom and fall even further into oblivion.

After reports started to leak that UT was about to hire Greg Schiano, a social media revolt began that ultimately led to Tennessee backing out of their agreement to name Schiano as the replacement for Butch Jones.

A not-so-attractive Tennessee job has now become incredibly undesirable by potential candidates.

But the Vols still have some options and one of those options is Vol legend Tee Martin, the current offensive coordinator for the USC Trojans.

Martin has been with the Trojans since the 2012 season. He’s worked under Lane Kiffin, Ed Orgeron, Steve Sarkisian and Clay Helton. He’s only been an offensive coordinator for three seasons, but he could be the right man to lead the Volunteers.

Obviously there is some uncertainty with how Martin would deal with leading a big time program, but it’s not uncommon for Coordinators to make the jump from coordinator to head coach at the Power-5 level. Dabo Swinney (wide receivers coach), Bob Stoops, Kirby Smart and Mark Richt are just a few of the coaches that have made the jump and been successful.

Let’s also not forget that Martin has a tremendous resource at his disposal to answer any questions he may have — Phillip Fulmer.

There would be probably be some growing pains with Martin at the helm, but I think he would be able to right the ship and help restore Tennessee to its former glory. He is probably the one person that I think Vol fans would be patient with.

The big question, of course, is what kind of staff would Martin bring to Tennessee. That’s the all-important question. He would have to bring a great staff to ensure success.

Here’s what I think that staff could look like.

Offensive coordinator/quarterbacks — Randy Sanders

Sanders has been the offensive coordinator at Tennessee before, but he resigned after a not-so-great 2005 season.

But before that season, he had some decent success at Tennessee. And he was an assistant when Martin played at Tennessee.

Considering Tennessee hasn’t had an actual quarterbacks coach in quite some time, it would probably be wise to bring Sanders back into the fold (he was part of a national championship at Florida State as the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach). It would make a lot of sense to have Sanders work with Martin.

Running backs coach — Jay Graham (or retain Robert Gillespie)

If there’s one coach that Tennessee needs to retain in 2018, it’s running backs coach Robert Gillespie.

But if that doesn’t happen, then bringing Graham back to Rocky Top would also be a great move.

Graham was initially retained by Butch Jones in 2013, but it didn’t take him long to realize he didn’t gel with Jones and his staff, so he bolted for Florida State.

Martin couldn’t go wrong with either of these guys.

Wide receivers coach — Ted Gilmore

Martin will obviously have to reach out to some folks that he hasn’t worked with to fill out his staff.

Gilmore (currently the wide receivers coach at Wisconsin) was the wide receivers coach at USC in 2011, before he left to take the same position with the Oakland Raiders. He was replaced at USC by Martin.

After four years with the Raiders, Gilmore joined Wisconsin’s staff as their wide receivers coach. He has plenty of experience and he has a track record of success. I think he’d be a great addition to Martin’s staff.

Offensive line coach — Neil Callaway

Callaway is currently the offensive line coach at USC and I think it’s important that Martin doesn’t have an entirely new staff to work with at Tennessee.

As far as Callaway’s credentials, he went to school at Alabama and he’s coached at Alabama and Georgia. He was also the head coach at UAB from 2007-2011 (a job that was originally offered to Jimbo Fisher). This would be a great coach for Martin to bring with him to Tennessee.

Tight ends coach/special teams coordinator — John Baxter

This is another coach that currently serves with Martin that I think should make the transition with him.

Baxter has coached at USC since 2010 (except for the 2015 season that he spent with Michigan) as the special teams/tight ends coach. He’s also coached at Fresno State, Maryland and Arizona.

Staff continuity is important and Baxter would help in that area.

Defensive coordinator — Kevin Steele

If you’re going to hire Tee Martin, you have to spend some money to get a good staff around him. That means bringing Kevin Steele home and giving him more money than Auburn is currently giving him.

Steele is having plenty of success with the Tigers this season. He has experience with Nebraska, Florida State, Clemson and Alabama, and he went to school at Tennessee. It just makes too much sense to bring him to Rocky Top with Martin.

Linebackers coach — Peter Sirmon

Again, the Vols will have to spend some money to land a good staff for Martin. This would be a bit of a downgrade for Sirmon, but perhaps you could pay him a good salary and convince him to come back to Tennessee.

Sirmon, who is currently the defensive coordinator at Louisville, was the linebackers coach at Tennessee in 2011. He also served as the defensive coordinator at Mississippi State in 2016. Before that, he was on staff with Tee Martin at USC from 2014-15.

Perhaps he could even get a co-defensive coordinator designation.

Defensive backs coach — Terry Fair

Terry Fair and Tee Martin were teammates at Tennessee in the late 90’s, so why not have a reunion?

Fair was a graduate assistant at Tennessee under Butch Jones, before Colorado State hired him as their defensive backs coach in 2015.

It makes perfect sense for him to come back to Knoxville with Martin.

Defensive line/associate head coach — Marion Hobby

Once again, Tennessee will have to spend some money on this staff.

Hobby, who played at Tennessee in the late 1980’s, is currently the Jacksonville Jaguars’ defensive line coach. But I could see him coming to Tennessee with Martin if he gets a raise and is named associate head coach.

There’s no doubt he has plenty of experience. Hobby coached at Ole Miss and Duke under David Cutcliffe. He has also coached under Dabo Swinney at Clemson.