Herb Hand
Quick bio: Currently the offensive line coach at Aubrun, Hand has an impressive coaching career that includes stops at Penn State, Vanderbilt, Clemson and West Virginia, where he and Jones overlapped for a couple years. While Hand’s expertise is on the offensive line, he’s been a run-game coordinator in the SEC and Big Ten, and was a co-offensive coordinator at Tulsa.
Pros: Hand and Jones are good friends, and he’s one of the most respected minds in college football – particularly when it comes to the O-line and running game. He seems to have a positive impact in that area everywhere he goes. Case in point: Auburn jumped from fifth to first in the league in rushing from 2015 to 2016 in Hand’s first year on The Plains.
Cons/Questions: He doesn’t have extensive play-calling experience, and a lot of his success has come paired with other offensive minds such as Gus Malzahn, Rich Rodriguez and James Franklin. If UT were to promote internally, it’d be interesting to see if Jones would make a pitch to somebody like Hand to come be the run-game coordinator.
