TENNESSEE VOLS FOOTBALL: Familiarity roams the opposing sideline, but Vols can show evolution

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David Jenrath, an ex-Auburn football staffer arrested this week for leaking trade secrets, is an enrolled student at the University of Tennessee. 

But the Auburn-Tennessee connection runs much deeper than a former Auburn staffer now attending Tennessee. It will be the first time Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel coaches across the sideline from disciple Alex Golesh. 

Whether that familiarity provides an upper hand for Heupel remains to be seen.

“It works both sides,” Heupel said. “A lot of their staff’s been with us and vice versa, so it kind of balances things out.”

Golesh echoed the same words. 

“I think it would give you an advantage,” he said, “if they didn’t also have so much familiarity with your staff.”

It’s been four years since Golesh left to embark on his own head coaching journey. Golesh spent three seasons at South Florida before Auburn offered him the job prior to the 2026 season. 

Golesh’s ties to Heupel date back to their time at UCF. Heupel brought Golesh aboard in 2020 as the Knights’ co-offensive coordinator, and when Heupel got the Tennessee job in 2021, he brought the offensive mastermind along with him. 

Golesh did the same when he got a head coaching job of his own. Currently, Golesh has five former UT staffers on his Auburn staff: Kodi Burns, Tim Banks, Larry Scott, Tyler Hudanick and Jacob Bronowski. 

Burns and Banks coached big roles for Heupel while Golesh was still on Tennessee’s staff. The pair still hold prominent roles for Golesh at Auburn. Burns is the wide receiver coach, the same position he held at UT, while Banks is the co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach, a year removed from his firing from the Vols. 

Scott is the tight ends coach, but was a Butch Jones-era Tennessee staffer. Hudanick is the offensive line coach, who was a player at UCF and a graduate assistant coach at UT under Heupel. Bronowski is the special teams coordinator, who got his coaching career started as a special teams analyst for Heupel in 2021. 

But knowing the man who designed Tennessee's offense doesn't necessarily mean knowing the offense Tennessee runs in 2026. 

Golesh hasn’t been UT’s offensive coordinator since 2022. That season, Tennessee ranked first nationally in points per game and total offense. It also ranked first in passing efficiency with a quarterback who threw for 3,135 yards and 27 touchdowns. The Vols didn’t have a 1,000-yard rusher in 2022.

Ever since, the ground game has been the identity of Tennessee’s offense. The Vols have put together three consecutive seasons with a 1,000-plus-yard rusher. They’ve ranked top-10 nationally two of the last three seasons in rushing. 

That evolution could be important Saturday. Tennessee will face Golesh with an offense that looks considerably different from the one he helped build. Tennessee managed just 70 rushing yards on 44 attempts in its loss to Texas, while 10 sacks further dragged down the offense.

If Tennessee is going to get back in the win column Saturday, it will have to lean on the version of its offense that Golesh doesn't know quite as well.

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