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Tennessee football is expected to hire De’Rail Sims as its new running backs coach, a source with direct knowledge of the situation told Knox News on Monday.
Sims has spent the past two seasons at Cincinnati and was the running backs coach at Louisville for two years prior. The 38-year-old fills the vacancy on Josh Heupel’s Vols staff created by Jerry Mack accepting the running backs coach position with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Mack had been the running backs coach for three seasons under Heupel at UT.
Mack and linebackers coach Brian-Jean Mary departed this offseason. Jean-Mary was hired at Michigan, where he coached before he was hired at UT.
De’Rail Sims has led rushing attacks to successful seasons
Sims, a South Carolina native, has coached rushing attacks that finished in the top-25 in yards three times in the past four seasons.
Cincinnati ranked No. 16 nationally with 2,605 rushing yards in 2023, while ranking No. 6 in rushing yards per game with 217.1. Louisville ranked No. 16 in 2022 and No. 17 in 2021.
Tennessee football has rushed well under Josh Heupel
The Vols were among college football’s top rushing teams the past three seasons.
In 2021, UT ranked third in the SEC and 12th nationally in rushing offense, averaging a school-record 217.3 yards per game.
In 2022, UT led the nation in rushing touchdowns (40) and finished third after Georgia and Michigan played extra games in the College Football Playoffs.
In 2023, UT led the SEC in rushing offense and ranked No. 10 nationally, averaging 204.9 yards per game.
Where De’Rail Sims had coached before Tennessee football
Sims coached at James Madison, East Carolina and Western Carolina prior to jumping to Louisville.
Notably, he spent three seasons at James Madison as the Dukes went 28-2. They won an FCS title in 2016 and were runner-up in 2017.
Sims also coached at Carson…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/tennessee-football-hiring-derail-sims-230058680.html
Author : Knox News | The Knoxville News-Sentinel
Publish date : 2024-02-19 23:00:58
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