On the same day, Tennessee’s new football coach, Josh Heupel, introduced his entire offensive team, the Vols made another move that was a reference to the Butch Jones era. The second official hired on the defensive side of the ball is a former Jones assistant.
Football Scoop’s John Brice reported on Wednesday night that UT is bringing Willie Martinez back to coach cornerbacks. Martinez, who has been on the Heupel team with the UCF Knights since 2018, was the secondary coach at Rocky Top from 2013 to 2016 under Jones. The two also worked together on Dick Flynn’s team with Central Michigan Chippewas in 1998 and 1999.
Two days earlier, Tennessee football hired Tim Banks as a defensive coordinator. Banks, who spent the past four years as a defensive co-coordinator for Penn State Nittany Lions, was Jones’ defensive coordinator at CMU from 2007 to 2009 and with the Cincinnati Bearcats in 2010 and 2011. They also worked together on the Jeff Pierce team with Ferris State Bulldogs in 1997.
We have already written here about how Banks is a throwback to the Jones era. Well, with the addition of Martinez, Heupel is doubling that. In fact, with Banks set to train security guards, high school is a specific reference to the Jones era.
Martinez specifically generates mixed results when you look at the memories Vol fans had of him. There was some success, including the development of Cameron Sutton and Emmanuel Moseley, but the 2016 secondary was horrible on the stretch and cost the Vols the SEC East.
To be fair, Martinez was not on the 2017 team when it all came crashing down. He also has a very impressive resume in addition to the Vols, working with Mark Richt’s team with the Georgia Bulldogs from 2001 to 2009 and with Bob Stoops’s team with the Oklahoma Sooners in 2010 and 2011.
Simply put, Martinez had a success beyond what happened in the second half of the 2016 football season in Tennessee. Defensive philosophies in general had nothing to do with what made Jones get fired, as the historically bad offense in 2017 was what really led to the terrible year.
Still, these two moves lead to the idea that the Vols made a mistake in firing Jones, and that is not something anyone should think about. Just because they may have gone too far in the opposite direction with Jeremy Pruitt’s hiring doesn’t mean they should go back to another failed coach. Again, over-correction cannot be the problem.
After leaving Vols in 2017, Martinez spent a year on Luke Fickell’s team with the Cincinnati Bearcats before joining UCF. Before going to Rocky Top, he spent a year with the Auburn Tigers under Gene Chizik, the last year before Chizik was fired.
In addition to his Power Five experience and his experience working with Jones, Heupel and Fickell, Martinez also worked on Brian Kelly’s team with the Grand Valley State Lakers in 1992 and 1993. He played for the Miami hurricanes Howard Schnellenberger and Jimmy Johnson of 1981 1984 and served as a graduate assistant there in 1985 and 1986.
Other Martinez stops include Mike DeBord’s team at CMU in 2000, Flynn’s team at CMU before Jones arrived in 1994, Ryan Rasnick’s team at Eastern Michigan Eagles in 1997 and Gene McDowell’s team at UCF in 1995 and 1996. Tennessee football will enter the CMU and UCF as schools where he gets a second pass.