Jeremy Pruitt works fast: VolQuest is reporting Southern Cal passing game coordinator Tyson Helton will be Tennessee’s new offensive coordinator. He will lead an offensive staff including Robert Gillespie staying on with running backs, and Colorado State offensive coordinator Will Friend coming aboard as offensive line coach, plus a familiar face in the secondary:
Jeremy Pruitt already putting together Tennessee staff. As reported by Volquest, USC passing game coordinator and QBs coach Tyson Helton will join him along with Colorado State OC/OL coach Will Friend, Colorado State DB coach Terry Fair and Tennessee RB coach Robert Gillespie.
— Chris Low (@ClowESPN) December 7, 2017
Tyson Helton is the younger brother of the Trojans’ head coach Clay Helton. He has served as USC’s passing game coordinator the last two years.
This is a strange twist of fate for Tee Martin, no doubt, who serves as USC’s offensive coordinator. The former Vol didn’t appear to be among the finalists for Tennessee’s head coaching vacancy, and now one of his colleagues heads to Knoxville as offensive coordinator.
I have no idea what kind of head coach Tee Martin would be; I hope a tremendous one. But Tennessee’s previous coaching staff serves as somewhat of a warning for hires of convenience or friendship. Butch Jones brought almost his entire staff from Cincinnati to Knoxville initially, then made comfort hires at offensive coordinator when change presented itself. Mike DeBord never got the benefit of the doubt at Tennessee, in part for this very reason; he orchestrated the best offense in college football last November. But Larry Scott’s promotion was disastrous for Tennessee and ultimately for Butch Jones. A failure to operate outside of comfort zones on offense and/or the elevation of recruiting over scheme handcuffed Tennessee’s offense.
Tyson Helton is a move in a different direction, in what may be Pruitt’s most important hire.
As Southern Cal’s passing game coordinator, Helton led the Trojans to the eighth-best passing offense in S&P+ this year (see USC’s full advanced statistical profile at Football Study Hall); they finished fourth nationally in the same metric last year. Sam Darnold is eighth nationally in yards per attempt among QBs with 300+ attempts. Helton and Martin obviously did a good job helping Darnold position himself as one of the top picks in the 2018 NFL Draft.
Before joining his brother at USC, Helton worked with another name Tennessee fans have salivated over in the past two weeks: he was the offensive coordinator under Jeff Brohm at Western Kentucky.
Brohm has been the play-caller at WKU and Purdue, an important point. But Helton’s role as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach helped produce incredible offenses in 2014 and 2015. In 2015 the Hilltopper offense finished fourth nationally in S&P+ (see Western Kentucky’s advanced statistical profile), third in yards per play, and third in points per game. They were fifth and sixth nationally in those last two categories in 2014.
Helton has studied under Brohm and coached a potential number one overall draft pick alongside Tee Martin. Now he’ll get his chance in a bigger role with play-calling responsibilities. It’s a big hire for Jeremy Pruitt, but I like the background, the willingness to go outside the familiar, and the emphasis on scheme.
