Josh Heupel Adds Defensive Assistants To Tennessee Coaching Staff

Published|Updated

Tennessee football's staff has expanded, head coach Josh Heupel announced on Friday.

Rodney Garner will coach the defensive line, while Willie Martinez will serve as secondary coach.

Both return to Knoxville after previously coaching at UT and coaching together at Georgia from 2001 to 2009.

Martinez reunites with Heupel after serving as the assistant head coach and secondary coach at UCF the past three seasons.

Martinez coached cornerbacks at Cincinnati in 2017 and at Tennessee from 2014-16.

Garner returns to Tennessee after previously serving as the associate head coach and defensive line coach at Auburn the past eight seasons, from 2013 to 2020.

Heupel said bringing Garner and Martinez back to Tennessee is an important step for the program.

"They understand what it takes to build an elite defense in the SEC and have developed numerous NFL Draft picks through the years," Heupel said. "They also coached and mentored many student-athletes on some of Tennessee's most successful teams."

Tags
Written by
Megan graduated from the University of Central Florida and writes and tweets about anything related to sports. She replies to comments she shouldn't reply to online and thinks the CFP Rankings are absolutely rigged. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.