Other names that will get thrown around
• Tee Martin/USC OC: The former Tennessee quarterback is a hot commodity after just leading the Trojans to a Rose Bowl victory. He’s a top-notch recruiter, a tremendous quarterbacks coach and would command a ton of respect. He’s probably thinking bigger, however, as his name is coming up more and more as a future head coaching candidate.
• Jim Bob Cooter/Detroit Lions OC: Another former Tennessee quarterback, albeit a walk-on who saw limited action. Still, he’s become a hot name in the NFL – and not just because of his actual name. He’s getting some NFL head coaching looks, so he’s probably not going to jump to an opportunity like this at this point, though it can’t 100% be ruled out.
• Calvin Magee/Arizona Co-OC: Jones and Magee go way back to when he was an intern for the Tampa Bay Bucs and Magee was a player. Jones later worked under Magee at West Virginia, and the two are good friends. He was a popular name during the last OC search, but after some major struggles for Arizona in 2016, he might not be a viable candidate in this search.
• Bo Hardegree/Miami Dolphins: A former Tennessee backup quarterback, Hardegree has worked his way up to quarterbacks coach at Miami after a stint as a GA at Duke and then as a quality control assistant with the Chicago Bears.
• Peyton Manning: People will ask, so we’ll mention him. It’s not happening. At least we’re about 99.9% sure at this point.
