Mailbag: Can new Vols assistants coach?
Tennessee’s impressive run on the recruiting trail and a pair of player dismissals have made for an eventful offseason while the college football season remains in jeopardy because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Let’s take a closer look at some offthe-field developments in this week’s mailbag. Questions were submitted via email or my subscriber-only text group and have been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Regarding the coaching staff changes, do you anticipate continued improvement from the players at positions where their coach changed? Defensive line coach Jimmy Brumbaugh seems to have his work cut out for him after Emmit Gooden’s dismissal. – Terry A.
You raise a good point on the staff turnover.
We’re seeing that the staff restructuring didn’t hamper Tennessee on the recruiting trail. If anything, this is an even more robust staff of recruiters.
Player development is the lingering question. Brumbaugh has an advantage in that all of last year’s defensive line production returned. Plus, there’s an influx of freshman talent. Tennessee is accustomed to playing without Gooden. It did so last year while he was sidelined after a torn ACL. But it is fair to wonder whether Tennessee will miss the player development aspect of departed veteran defensive line coach Tracy Rocker.
Brumbaugh, though, is a seasoned assistant with SEC experience. The same can be said of running backs coach Jay Graham, who proved at past stops he can both recruit and develop talent.
Brian Niedermeyer is coaching on defense for the first time, while Joe Osovet is getting his first chance as an FBS assistant. It will be interesting to see how they fare in developing players. Both are assets on the recruiting trail.
Osovet is ranked 11th in the 247Sports recruiter rankings for the 2021 class. Graham is ranked 16th. Niedermeyer was ranked the 247Sports Recruiter of the Year in 2019.
Has any breakdown been shared by UT athletics on how many athletes have tested positive for COVID-19, and which sports are affected? – Ann S.
Tennessee opted for secrecy with its COVID-19 tests this month, rather than treat the information as important data that the public and campus community might benefit from knowing amid an ongoing pandemic.
In June, no football players tested positive after returning to campus, so, naturally, UT was transparent with that information. The men’s basketball team had two players test positive in June, and the program was upfront with that.
But after a round of testing in July revealed positive tests across multiple sports, including multiple positive tests within the football program, Tennessee chose to eschew transparency, keeping secret the total positive tests and the sports affected.
Many of Tennessee’s peers have opted for more transparency. That includes Oklahoma, the Vols’ scheduled opponent for Sept. 12. Throughout several rounds of testing, the Sooners have released the number of athletes and staff members tested, the number of positive tests and the sport affected, the number of active cases and the number of recovered players and staffers.
When will an SEC head football coach step up and volunteer to reduce his multi-million dollar salary in the face of necessary budget cuts in athletic departments? – Don L.
Among SEC schools, coaches at Missouri, South Carolina and Mississippi have accepted pay cuts.
At Ole Miss, staffers earning more than $100,000, including Lane Kiffin, agreed to a pay cut, The Clarion Ledger reported. The St. Louis Post-dispatch reported that five Missouri coaches, including Eli Drinkwitz, took a pay cut. South Carolina’s athletics director and three coaches, including Will Muschamp, accepted a pay cut, 247Sports reported.
Tennessee has not instituted any layoffs, furloughs or pay cuts within the athletic department.
I know athletics director Phillip Fulmer said in June that Tennessee planned to play in a full stadium. Have you heard anything about their plans to play to an empty stadium? Or, what about a spring season? – Doug P.
If there’s football this fall, I would think we’ll see it played in empty stadiums or under capacity restrictions that limit attendance to players’ families, high rollers and maybe some select season-ticket holders.
If the season is canceled, a spring season could garner consideration. Playing a 12-game season in the spring and then another full season next fall would raise concerns about player safety, pandemic aside, but perhaps a shortened spring schedule would be an option.
We’ve already seen one FCS league, the SWAC, opt for a seven-game spring season.
Who is more detrimental losing to the team? Austin Pope or Emmit Gooden? – Robbie S.
Gooden is the bigger talent, but I’ll say Pope, sidelined indefinitely following back injury, is the more detrimental loss because Tennessee is better stocked at defensive line than it is at tight end.
Tennessee already was thin on experience at tight end and needed to replace its top pass-catching tight end from last season, Dominick Wood-anderson. Now it must also replace its top blocking tight end. Although not a factor in the passing game, Pope garnered steady playing time as a run blocker and in six-man pass protection.
Tennessee’s defensive line was probably the position group that showed the most improvement throughout last season. Without Gooden, Tennessee still has plenty of experienced linemen and some intriguing freshmen, such as Omari Thomas.
Blake Toppmeyer covers University of Tennessee football. Email him at blake.toppmeyer@knoxnews.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.