› Who’s next?
Tennessee has become the third football program from a Power Five conference to enter the market for a head coach this season, and the second in the Southeastern Conference. Oregon State and SEC East rival Florida are the others already looking.
Here are some candidates Tennessee could consider for the job. For context, Butch Jones made $4.1 million annually. (Most salary figures listed below are from the USA Today college football coaches salary database.
GRAND SLAM
› Jon Gruden (former Oakland Raiders, Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach): Gruden’s last college gig was as the tight ends coach at Pacific in 1989 after he broke into the business as a graduate assistant at Tennessee in 1986. Gruden’s last year as a coach of any sort was with the Bucs in 2008. He reportedly makes $6.5 million as ESPN’s Monday Night Football analyst, and it’s hard to fathom that a Super Bowl-winning coach with a cushy gig would desire to be a college coach. But because of his family ties and personal history with the school, ESPN’s financial troubles and the past flirting between Gruden and Tennessee, there will be plenty of Grumors during this coaching search.
HOME RUN
› Dan Mullen (Mississippi State head coach): Mullen is in the process of leading the Bulldogs to an eighth consecutive bowl game while earning $4.5 million annually. He has done a great job building a legacy at a historically difficult job. Tennessee could probably afford to offer him a raise over his current gig, but the job would come with higher expectations than those in Starkville. There will probably be a statue of Mullen built on Mississippi State’s campus soon for averaging 7.6 wins per year. If he did that in Knoxville, they would run him out of town in four years. But watch out for the Gators with Mullen. Former Mississippi State athletic director Scott Stricklin is now the athletic director at Florida.
TRIPLE
› Matt Campbell (Iowa State head coach): The darling of this year’s coaching carousel has led a historically low-achieving program to victories over national powers Oklahoma and TCU in his second season. The Cyclones hadn’t finished with a winning record since 2009, but that will change this year. Campbell was 35-15 in five years at Toledo before his quick turnaround of Iowa State began last year. He makes $2.1 million at Iowa State with another $1 million in potential bonuses. His $9.6 million buyout is a hefty price to pay for potential suitors.
BASE HITS
› Mike Norvell (Memphis head coach): Norvell’s Arkansas roots make him a great candidate for that job, should Bret Bielema be fired. His offensive
pedigree also makes him a likely target for Florid as it seeks to reclaim the glories of the Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer eras. Tennessee would be wise to make a run at Norvell, too. Memphis is in arguably its best season in program history during Norvell’s second year leading the Tigers. He makes $1.87 million at Memphis with room for another $570,000 in bonuses.
› Scott Frost (Central Florida head coach): Frost was Nebraska’s quarterback when the Cornhuskers beat Tennessee in the Orange Bowl after the 1997 season. Now he has Central Florida 9-0 in the second season of his first head coaching job. Frost is a candidate for the Florida position and will assuredly be courted by Nebraska, should that program decide to part ways with Mike Riley in the midst of a tough season. The Nebraska and Florida jobs seem like more natural fits for Frost. He makes $2 million per season with the Knights.
› Bobby Petrino (Louisville head coach): With the Louisville athletic department embroiled in chaos and
Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Lamar Jackson likely headed to the NFL draft after this season, Petrino may be interested in finding another job. His Arkansas tenure came to a scandalous ending and Petrino is not known to be particularly loyal, but he’s never run afoul with the NCAA. And he has won in the SEC before. Offering a raise from his current $3.9 million salary is doable for Tennessee.
› Tee Martin (Southern California offensive coordinator): The quarterback who led the Vols to the 1998 national championship has made a name for himself by rising to the position of offensive coordinator for an explosive offense led by star quarterback Sam Darnold. The downside is Martin has never been a head coach, and Tennessee is a tough first job. Martin, who has a street named after him on campus, may not want to risk failure at his alma mater.
› Charlie Strong (South Florida head coach): Tennessee made a run at Strong before it hired Jones after the 2012 season. He opted to stay at Louisville before taking the Texas job. Things didn’t work out at Texas, but Strong is 8-1 in his first year at South Florida. He makes $1 million at South Florida with room for another $815,000 in bonuses.
› Gary Patterson (TCU head coach): Tennessee has courted Patterson in the past, but the 57-year-old is entrenched with the Horned Frogs after 17 seasons, turning down prior opportunities to leave. “It would have to be something you just couldn’t say no to,” Patterson recently told ESPN. “For me, it’s not only TCU, but Fort Worth is a special place.”
› Willie Taggart (Oregon head coach): Taggart parlayed an 11-2 season at South Florida in 2016 into landing his current job. Things have been rough for the Ducks this year, however. With Oregon at 5-5, perhaps Taggart would be interested in returning to the Southeast. He makes $2.9 million at Oregon.
WHAT IF?
› Lane Kiffin (Florida Atlantic head coach): The first of several potential candidates who are fun to talk about but not happening. Maybe most Tennessee fans have forgiven Kiffin for his late-night departure from Knoxville after a year of coaching the Vols. But it’s hard to believe the influential decision makers in and around the athletic department would be willing to give him another chance. Kiffin will coach a Power Five program again; it just won’t be Tennessee. He makes $950,000 at Florida Atlantic.
› Justin Fuente (Virginia Tech head coach): Fuente’s name has already been tossed around by bloggers and prognosticators. He could probably leverage the opening for a raise with the Hokies, but it would be a confounding, lateral move for Fuente to leave a good thing in Blacksburg for the pressure of Knoxville. He makes $3.25 million at Virginia Tech.
› Chip Kelly (former Oregon, Philadelphia Eagles, San Francisco 49ers head coach): Many have forgotten Oregon received three years of probation and Kelly received an 18-month show-cause penalty from the NCAA for rules violations as he departed for the NFL after the 2012 season. Think Currie and chancellor Beverley Davenport want to sign off on a coach with that history as they make their first major coaching hire? Think again.
› Bob Stoops (former Oklahoma coach): Stoops, 57, retired unexpectedly before this season after 18 years leading the Sooners. He amassed a 190-48 record and won a national championship. And he has made it clear he does not want to coach again.