Tennessee Vols Coaching Search: Potential Jeff Brohm Coaching Staff

The Tennessee Vols have turned their attention to Purdue head coach Jeff Brohm.

It sounds like the Tennessee Vols are doing all they can to convince Jeff Brohm to come to Rocky Top.

After being turned down by Mike Gundy and Dan Mullen, the Vols have turned their attention to Brohm, a rising star in the coaching world.

Brohm worked wonders at Western Kentucky during his three year stint as the Hilltoppers’ head coach, and helped turn Purdue around in 2017. In the four years prior to Brohm’s arrival, the Boilermakers won only nine games. They won six games this year.

Anyway, if Brohm is the guy for Tennessee, he will have to bring a SEC staff with him to Knoxville (that was part of Butch Jones’ problem).

Here’s what that staff could look like.

Offensive coordinator/wide receivers — Lonnie Galloway

Galloway is one of the best wide receivers coaches in the business, and he’s in his second season as an offensive coordinator. This is Brohm’s offense, so the coordinator hire isn’t quite as important as it would be for a defensive minded coach. I think Galloway (who is currently at Louisville) would be a great option to come to Tennessee.

The Vols need an elite wide receivers coach to get the reputation of WRU back on Rocky Top. The only concern here is that Galloway was suspended for Louisville’s bowl game last year for accepting game plans from a Wake Forest staff member. But I don’t think that’s ultimately that big of a deal.

Another option here would be Garrick McGee. He’s a former head coach at UAB (Brohm was on his staff there).

Quarterbacks — Brian Brohm

Brohm, the younger brother of Jeff, is currently the co-offenisve coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Purdue. He doesn’t have a lot of experience, so I don’t think I’d be comfortable with him being an offensive coordinator in the SEC. But I do think he’d be a good choice to the quarterbacks coach under his older brother at Tennessee.

Running backs — Robert Gillespie

The smartest thing Brohm can do from day one is retain Robert Gillespie. He’s a tremendous position coach and he’s a great recruiter. He will help the new staff with recruiting and familiarity. This is one of the smartest staff decisions Brohm could make.

Offensive line — Neil Callaway

The Vols desperately need a legitimate offensive line coach. Callaway is that guy.

Callaway was on staff with Brohm at Western Kentucky from 2013-2015. And he has SEC experience (offensive line coach at Alabama and Georgia earlier in his career). Callaway is currently on staff at USC.

Special teams/tight ends — Toby Levine

Levine is currently the special teams/tight ends/co-offenisve coordinator at Purdue. I definitely think Brohm needs to bring him along.

Before Levine joined Brohm at Western Kentucky last season, he was the head coach at Houston.

Levine was a GA at Auburn from 2000-2001.

Defensive coordinator — Kevin Steele

Steele is currently the defensive coordinator at Auburn and he’s obviously having some great success there. It would be nice for Brohm to have a bit of a Tennessee feel to his staff. Since the Vols likely won’t be paying Brohm $7 million a year, perhaps they could open the wallet and give Steele plenty of money to come home to Tennessee.

Another option here would be Ron Zook (Brohm coached under him at Illinois), but I think Steele is the best option.

Linebackers — Vic Koenning

Koenning is currently the defensive coordinator at Troy. He was the defensive coordinator at Illinois when Brohm was on staff there. He was a linebacker in college at Kansas State and he played two years in the USFL. Koenning was also the head coach at Wyoming at one point and he was the defensive coordinator at Clemson from 2005-2008.

Defensive backs — Anthony Poindexter

Poindexter is currently the co-defenisve coordinator/safeties coach at Purdue. I think it would be worth paying him over $400,000 (currently makes $425,000) to be the defensive backs coach at Tennessee. If Tennessee wants to be serious about competing for championships, they need a championship staff, and that costs money.

Defensive line — Reggie Johnson

Johnson is currently the defensive line coach at Purdue. He came with Brohm from Western Kentucky. Johnson was on Bobby Petrino’s staff at Arkansas, as a linebackers coach, so he does have some SEC experience.

Another option here would be to retain Brady Hoke, or perhaps check in with Steve Stripling (who is still with the UT program). The Vols’ defensive line performed extremely well under Stripling.