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Tennessee Vols: Tyson Helton’s Play Calling Experience

By Zach Ragan

KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 10: A general view of Neyland Stadium during the kickoff of the game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Georgia Bulldogs on October 10, 2015 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 10: A general view of Neyland Stadium during the kickoff of the game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Georgia Bulldogs on October 10, 2015 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images) /
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While nothing is official yet, it looks like Tyson Helton will be the Tennessee Vols’ offensive coordinator next season.

Tyson Helton, who was recently hired by Tennessee Vols head coach Jeremy Pruitt, is viewed by many as a rising star in college football. He’s expected to be the Vols’ offensive coordinator next season (though that isn’t official yet).

Helton, who is the younger brother of USC head coach Clay Helton, has spent the last two seasons on staff at USC as the Trojans’ quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator.

Prior to his time at USC, Helton was the offensive coordinator at Western Kentucky under Jeff Brohm (now the Purdue head coach). While at Western Kentucky, however, Helton didn’t call plays (Brohm calls his own plays).

But that doesn’t mean Helton will be completely new to calling plays.

It’s widely known that Helton shared play calling duties at USC with offensive coordinator Tee Martin and the elder Helton.

Clay Helton has been mum on how the play calling duties are shared, but Tyson Helton discussed the process a bit this past season.

"I’m there when Tee (Martin) needs me. I’m always trying to stay a play ahead. When he looks to me for a call, I always have a call ready. Particularly the third downs, I’m always ready in that area. We just kind of share that a little bit. Tee does a great job with it. But that’s kind of our philosophy to always stay a play ahead and then when we get in that situation and he needs me, I’ll make a call for him."

Helton went on to say that Martin typically handles first and second down, and that he usually has the play ready for third down. He also mentioned that he helps out a decent amount in red zone situations.

The fact that Helton is making a fair amount of play calls for one of the best teams in the Pac-12 should give Vol fans plenty of confidence in their (likely) new offensive coordinator.

There’s also a good chance that Will Friend, Tennessee’s new offensive line coach, will share a co-offenisve coordinator role with Helton.

Friend spent the last three seasons as the offensive coordinator at Colorado State.

Under Friend, the Rams finished the 2017 season with the 10th ranked offense in the nation (CSU averaged just over 500 yards per game of total offense. They also put up almost 400 yards of offense against Alabama this past season).

I think Vol fans should feel confident about the direction of the offense in 2018.

Next: Vols Offer Three-Star Running Back

Tennessee will be fortunate enough to have two coaches that have called plays for two highly productive offenses.

That’s not something that a lot of programs can say.

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