College programs can only have 10 on-field assistant coaches under the head coach, but that doesn’t stop coaches from bringing in several off-field coaches in “analyst” roles or under various other titles. Nick Saban at Alabama is probably most well-known among college football head coaches at exploiting those allowances, as he’s hired on several former head coaches and coordinators to serve in off-field roles on his staff.
Jeremy Pruitt at Tennessee brought in several off-field coaches last offseason, and he was able to retain one of the more pivotal hires in that regard this offseason. Now, that same coach is reportedly getting a promotion.
According to Bruce Feldman of FOX Sports and The Athletic, Joe Osovet is about to be promoted to Tennessee’s Director of Program Development. Osovet worked this past season in UT’s Player Development department along with former Vol Kevin Simon and Patrick Abernathy.
SOURCE: Joe Osovet is getting promoted at #Tennessee to Director of Program Development. He came to the Vols from ASA College in NY where he was the head coach.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) February 22, 2019
Osovet was hired on as part of Pruitt’s staff last offseason to help Pruitt and his recruiting staff in identifying junior college talent and to help plan the Vols’ offense. Osovet had been a head coach in the JUCO ranks for five years before joining UT in 2018.
As a JUCO head coach, Osovet won the 2014 USA Sports Writer JUCO Coach of the Year and two Northeast Football Conference Coach of the Year awards. He served as the interim head coach for Nassau Community College in 2013 before taking on the full-time role in 2014, then he left there to become the head coach at ASA College in New York.
Osovet’s offenses in the JUCO ranks made him a hot name in the coaching world. He’s viewed as an innovator in the RPO offense that is so prevalent in college football now.
The offenses that Osovet ran as the head coach of Nassau and ASA were dynamic and high-scoring. His offense at Nassau in 2014 averaged 35.3 points per game and upped that to 45.1 points per contest in 2015. His offense averaged 34.4 points a game at ASA College in 2016 and upped that to 41.9 points per game in 2017.
Osovet has been critical in the Vols’ ability to snag junior college players in the last two recruiting cycles. Tennessee landed signatures from JUCO players such as Dominick Wood-Anderson, Jahmir Johnson, Jordan Allen, and Kenneth George Jr. in the 2018 class and signed Savion Williams and Darel Middleton in the 2019 class.
