Head coach Jeremy Pruitt on Monday confirmed that Jimmy Brumbaugh is only four games out of the 2020 season as Tennessee’s defensive coach. Brumbaugh, who also held the title of co-defensive coordinator, was hired as a replacement by the Vols Tracy Rocker in February, but his tenure is over just over eight months after Tennessee’s loss to Kentucky on Saturday. Pruitt said he will train Tennessee’s defense line for the remainder of the season.
“Yesterday I decided to change the position of the D-Line,” said Pruitt at his weekly press conference on Monday. “Coach Brumbaugh did a really good job for us, he pulled his tail off. Sometimes things just don’t fit together from a philosophical point of view, and it just didn’t work out for us, so I made up my mind. I will train the line of defense for the rest of the season. “
Brumbaugh previously worked with the Tennessee Defensive Coordinator Derrick Ansley for three seasons (2013-15) in Kentucky and played on the SEC in Auburn. The 43-year-old coach spent the 2019 season in Colorado before moving to Tennessee after National Signing Day in February. Prior to his two seasons (2017-18) in Maryland, he worked four seasons in Kentucky. Brumbaugh also spent a season as a defensive coach at East Mississippi Community College in 2013, having completed two seasons each with Syracuse and Louisiana Tech.
Pruitt commented on the timing of the coaching change, saying it was not an indication of Brumbaugh’s coaching acumen.
“If it doesn’t work, it’s better to do it now,” said Pruitt. “Myself and Jimmy had a really good conversation and unfortunately, probably due to the circumstances of Covid, if you are a new coach and have no chance to be with your players from March, April, May and then limited in June it penalizes You. This isn’t a blow to Jimmy as a coach. He’s one of the most knowledgeable guys I’ve ever seen and he’ll do a good job anywhere.
“It’s just something I felt we had to do and we did it.”
Regarding the Tennessee defense line takeover, Pruitt said he has moved to various position groups in practice and does not expect to take the role to relieve too much of his duties as head coach of Tennessee.
“I’ve helped a lot of different positions across this camp,” said Pruitt. “Just really from the point of view, because it wasn’t a normal camp or a normal season. We got people in and out trying to figure out just for example Morven Joseph, Law? In order to Morven Joseph I worked at Inside Linebacker last night. He’s still going to put the quarterback in third place, but if this had been a normal camp he would have already done that. We would have had enough practice to work on both sites, and we had several people to do that. Keshawn Lawrence jumped from corner to security back into the corner.
“I was just trying to spend a lot of time with young players. I did all of this anyway and then went on the offensive. No, I have a lot of help from a (graduate assistant) standpoint. We’ll be fine. “
Brumbaugh signed a two-year contract in Tennessee in February with a base salary of $ 650,000. If he were fired for no reason, Brumbaugh would be owed the remaining salary on his deal, mitigated by any salary he would earn in his new job, and he must “make reasonable and diligent efforts as soon as it is practical to do so after the termination to get another comparable. ” Employment or paid agency. “
The Vols are hosting secondary Alabama on Saturday (3:30 p.m., CBS).
