Vols insider gives the latest on potential coaching staff changes at Tennessee

The Tennessee Vols aren't expected to have major coaching staff changes this offseason after the program reached the College Football Playoff in 2024 for the first time in program history. 

In fact, there's a chance that Tennessee runs it back in 2025 with the exact same coaching staff that they had in 2024 -- which would be pretty incredible for a playoff team (keeping assistant coaches can be a challenge....just look back at the Jeremy Pruitt era at UT for evidence). 

Tennessee has a few assistant coaches that are on contracts that expire at the end of January -- defensive coordinator Tim Banks, secondary coach Willie Martinez, special teams coordinator/outside linebackers coach Mike Ekeler, and strength coach Kurt Schmidt. 

VolQuest's Brent Hubbs joined 104.5 The Zone's Ramon, Kayla, and Will on Friday and he shared the latest insight on those coaches. 

"Tim Banks, strength coach Kurt Schmidt, special teams coordinator Mike Ekeler, and secondary coach Willie Martinez are all on contracts that expire at the end of this month, and so it's either new contracts for them or moving on," explained Hubbs. "Tim Banks, his name has been talked about with the Miami job. And as we talked about last week, he had no interest there. He was linked with the Clemson job early on. I don't think there's any real movement there with Banks or Clemson. So I think Tim Banks is going to be back when it's all said and done. And I think that he's had an opportunity from a contract standpoint to sign. I think they're trying to get through all of the dotting the I's and crossing the T's. We'll see if they get that one to the finish line. It feels like they will."

"Ekeler, his name has been linked to the special teams opening at Nebraska, and Mike is originally from Nebraska. That one makes total sense. But how interested is Matt Rhule, Nebraska's head coach, in Mike Ekeler? That's the uncertainty right now. And in talking to some Nebraska folks the last few days, they are aware that Ekeler would have interest in that job. They're just not sure exactly what direction Rhule wants to go with that position at this point in time. Is he going to hire a full time special teams coordinator? Is he going to hire a position coach and then kind of divide up special teams duties? That's what everybody's trying to figure out with that one."

"Willie Martinez, I think will probably be back for another year," continued Hubbs. "He was on a one year deal this past year. He's been on a one year deal for the last couple of seasons. I don't think he's ready to retire. His defensive backs played well. It feels like he'll be back. And Kurt Schmidt, the strength coach, has been around Josh Heupel for a long, long time. I think there's a real comfort level there. If you're gonna make a change at strength coach, to me, you would have already done it, because your players are coming back to town in 11 days to start the winter off-season. So I think you would have already had that situation rectified if you were gonna make some kind of change there. So watching Ekeler and Nebraska, that's the one that could potentially develop into something -- at least that's what it feels like right now."