Possible staffs of potential UT coaching candidates

Coaching staffs

Chip Kelly

Offensive coordinator/quarterbacks: Ryan Day
Played college football at New Hampshire when Chip Kelly was offensive coordinator. Served as a GA at New Hampshire with Kelly. Day also served as Chip Kelly’s quarterbacks coach in 2015 with the Philadelphia Eagles and 2016 with the San Francisco 49ers. He’s currently the co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Ohio State (obviously Mark Helfrich would be an option here as well, but I’m not sure how crazy he is about the idea of heading to East Tennessee).

Running backs: Robert Gillespie
There isn’t a connection between Kelly and Gillespie, but there also isn’t an obvious running backs coach that Kelly would use. He would benefit from retaining Gillespie on the staff (especially from a recruiting stand point).

Wide receivers: Bob Bicknell
Chip Kelly hired Bicknell as his wide receivers coach when he took the head coaching job with the Philadelphia Eagles. Bicknell made the move to San Francisco with Kelly in 2016. He’s currently the wide receivers coach at Baylor.

Tight ends/special teams: Chris Zarkoskie
Zarkoskie is in second season as the tight ends coach at New Hampshire. Kelly loves New Hampshire and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him give a guy on their coaching staff a chance in the SEC.

Offensive line: Eric Wolford
Wolford was Kelly’s offensive line coach with the San Francisco 49ers. He’s currently the offensive line coach at South Carolina. Adding Wolford would give Kelly’s staff some more SEC experience.

Defensive coordinator: Peter Sirmon
Sirmon was a GA under Kelly in 2009 at Oregon (where he played his college football, though he didn’t play for Kelly). Sirmon was also a GA at Tennessee in 2010, before serving as linebackers coach in 2011. He’s currently the defensive coordinator at Louisville. A reunion with Kelly at Tennessee would seem to make sense.

Linebackers: Rick Minter
Minter has a ton of experience as a football coach. He was the head coach at Cincinnati from 1994-2003. He’s been a defensive coordinator at South Carolina (2004), Notre Dame (2005-07) and Kentucky (2011-12). He was also Kelly’s linebackers coach from 2013-15 with the Philadelphia Eagles. Currently, Minter is the defensive coordinator for Florida Tech.

Defensive backs: John Neal
Neal was Kelly’s defensive backs coach at Oregon. He stayed when Mark Helfrich took over the program and he was let go with Helfrich was fired. He’s currently the assistant director of football operations at UAB.

Defensive line: Jerry Azzinaro
Azzinaro was Kelly’s defensive line coach from 2009-2016. He went from Oregon to Philly to San Francisco with Kelly, so it only makes sense that he would come along for the ride to Tennessee. He’s currently the defensive line coach at California.