Joe Osovet
Track Record:
Nassau Community College (OC/Interim Head Coach) — 2013
Nassau Community College (Head Coach) — 2014-15
ASA College (Head Coach/OC) – 2016-17
Tennessee (Player Development) — 2018-present
Pros: Regarded as a budding star in the coaching world, Osovet was an innovator at the JUCO ranks as a head coach and play-caller. He won Coach of the Year at the JUCO level in 2014 as the head coach of Nassau Community College, and his offenses both there and at ASA College were dynamic and hard to defend. He’s known for his RPO offense and up-tempo schemes, and college football is getting more and more saturated with that with each passing year. Pruitt hired him as an assistant last year because of his JUCO connections and his RPO knowledge.
Cons: Osovet is clearly highly though of, but he’s never called plays at the FBS level, and it would look very, very bad on UT’s part if they ended up promoting within after the month-plus search they’ve undertaken. Plus, it remains to be seen if the type of offense Osovet ran at the JUCO level would work in the SEC. Some of it would, but he would likely need to adjust his philosophy.
Analysis: Pruitt doesn’t want to promote from within with his OC hire, so it doesn’t seem likely Osovet would get the nod, even as a co-OC. It’s also highly unlikely that Osovet would go from a player development role to a play-caller role in just one year.
