Caleb Jones / Tennessee Athletics photo
South Carolina signed Tennessee offensive line coach Will Friend for the same position. Friend joins Shane Beamer’s initial technical team with the Gamecocks.
Beamer was hired to be Carolina’s new head coach on December 5, after Will Muschamp was relieved of his duties several weeks earlier. Beamer was in Oklahoma as an associate head coach and a tight-lipped trainer. Previously, he worked in South Carolina from 2007-2010.
Friend leaves Tennessee’s coaching staff after his third season at Rocky Top. Jeremy Pruitt hired Friend for his initial coaching staff when he accepted the job at UT in 2017. Pruitt hired Friend outside the state of Colorado, where Friend served as an offensive lineman for three 2015-17 seasons.
Friend spent four seasons in Georgia before his stint at Colorado State, starting in 2011 as an offensive line coach and adding the title of coordinator of the racing game for the Bulldogs in 2013. His stint in Athens came after four seasons as a line coach. offensive in the UAB (2007-10).
He was twice All-SEC and four years of initial guard in Alabama. Friend helped Crimson Tide win the SEC Western Division title and SEC Championship Game seats in 1993, 1994 and 1996, with appearances in the Gator Bowl, Citrus Bowl and Outback Bowl. Friend was named to the Alabama Decade Team in the 1990s.
Friend was an All-America selection from Parade Magazine as a senior at Neshoba Central High in Philadelphia, Mississippi. He graduated in human performance in Alabama in 1998. He and his wife, ex-Carrie Moon, have three children: Katie, Brooks and Charlie.
Tennessee is coming out of a 3-7 season in year three, under Jeremy Pruitt. The Vols started the season 2-0, but lost seven of the last eight games, all by double digits.