Derrick Ansley, the newest and final member on Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley's revamped staff of assistants, will work specifically with cornerbacks, UT confirmed Friday in its first official acknowledgement of the hire.
"Derrick is a bright, young coach with an incredibly high ceiling in this profession," Dooley said in the university release. "He worked with Sal Sunseri for two seasons and will be able to bring some systematic continuity to the defensive staff."
Terms of Ansley's agreement with the Vols were not provided.
The release did not specify any other title changes on the staff. Terry Joseph, who was the team's defensive backs coach the past two seasons, is still listed as such on UT's official website. Joseph also is the recruiting coordinator.
Darin Hinshaw remains listed as quarterbacks coach, though multiple recruits told 247Sports that he will assume Charlie Baggett's old role as wide receivers coach.
Ansley, 31, joins the Vols after spending two months as a defensive backs coach on George O'Leary's staff at Central Florida. He signed on with the Golden Knights after two seasons as a graduate assistant in the secondary at Alabama, where he worked alongside Sunseri, UT's new defensive coordinator, and directly under defensive coordinator Kirby Smart and secondary coach Jeremy Pruitt.
A Tallassee, Ala., native, Ansley played at Troy. He started 40 consecutive games, finished fifth in the nation with nine interceptions as a junior and graduated as the program's all-time leader with 19 career interceptions.
Upon graduating from Troy with a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism, Ansley went on to coach defensive backs for five years at Huntingdon College, a small Division III school in Montgomery, Ala. Ansley also served as Huntingdon's recruiting coordinator for three seasons.
Andrew Gribble may be reached at 865-342-6327. Follow him at http://twitter.com/Andrew_Gribble and http://blogs.knoxnews.com/gribble
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Comments » 21
MidTennVol writes:
Hinshaw as receivers coach? I would rather see Joseph. But what do I know?
PureOrange writes:
With this group of receivers, we may only need someone to show them where the endzone is!
CantCompare writes:
And I can confirm that Tennessee has confirmed it. GBO!
RoyaltyVol#280778 writes:
I would think he is replacing Josephs, our db's were horrible last year
Orange_Pants_Buy_One_Get_One_Free writes:
And the comedian hits the jackpot again with an incredible hire.
Keep Fooley!
Rich_Is_Re-born writes:
He'll coach CBs and this dude will coach safeties, or vice versa. That's how lots of coaches who run 3-4 do it. They'll have seperate coaches for CB and safety, and seperate coaches for OLB and ILB.
RoyaltyVol#280778 writes:
Its obvious Joseph needs the help, thanks for insight, I actually didn't know that!
MidTennVol writes:
Thanks for that. If you're right, then Hinshaw is the man to coach up all this WR talent? Interesting.
I would prefer Willie Gault. Or Roland James.
But that's just me.
jack_2222#231746 writes:
Not only does Hinshaw have a track record coaching receivers, he knows Bray, what Bray is looking for, all that good stuff a QB coach teaches. Looks like a synergistic move.
tnoutlaw2001#228008 writes:
It's about time. Dooley finally has a coaching staff, not a bunch of want to be's.
Joesph never played football, and I think it's hurt the development of the db's each of the past 2 season.
Good to know we finally have a running backs coach and a db's coach.
Now if he would hire a good WR coach and fire Chaney, I would be thrilled.
TitanandVolfan4life writes:
Excellent hire IMO!!!
He's a solid DB coach and played the position in college and everywhere he's been the DB's got alot better which is why alaBummer went and got him and held on to him for 2 years working with great D coaches including our new DC.
He's known as a good recruiter and was a recruiting coordinator for 3 years so he knows the ins and outs of recruiting.
I think he'll coach CB's and CTJ will coach Safetys and I also think that he may also help CTJ with some of his recruiting coordinator work because the RC job is very important but it also takes LOTS of time so this should also help make our recruiting alot better.
Hinshaw as our WR's coach is actually a good move because he's played QB, coached QB's and coached WR's before and nobody know how a WR should be running routes and getting to the right spot on time on times plays better than the QB knows it.
He can teach, in detail, exactly what the QB is looking for and expects a WR to do on every play and teach the WR's what a QB is thinking and how he'll respond which alot of QB's won't tell his WR for fear of pissing them off.
This guy will already know what our DC will be demanding even before he gets here since they've worked together before and that will only make things alot easier and save some time on getting our new D systems in place.
I really like what CDD was finally able to do with his coaching staff since his 1st staff was thrown together so fast with whoever he could get in place fast to try and save his 1st recruiting class that he only had 2 1/2 weeks to save while interviewing coaches at the same time.
CDD has us moving in a good direction now and he has much better coaches and recruiters to get alot better job done.
The next 2 or 3 years are really going to be fun to watch.
VFL...GBO!!!
beartn#223846 writes:
<<I would think he is replacing Josephs, our db's were horrible last year
It's about time. Dooley finally has a coaching staff, not a bunch of want to be's.
Joesph never played football, and I think it's hurt the development of the db's each of the past 2 season.>>
Joseph lost his best player (Janzen Jackson) before the season. We then lost more to inury, forcing the swtich if Waggner to safety (he played well, but is the best corner we have). Joseph didn't exactly have a lot to work with last year. No excuses next season, though. We have experience coming back, and more depth coming in.
I think it's possible that Joseph may still work with the safeties. I'm not sure how Dooley will split the duties.
Prostar writes:
Always so critical of our coach and his assts. Why don't you offer up suggestions at to who you would hire. If you are so critical of these, then offer up some names of coaches you would have hired. It's easy to be negative, just offer some solutions.
Rich_Is_Re-born writes:
I'm kinda with you on this. Losing JJ doesn't help a DB coach. On top of that, starting Teague over Gordon is INSANE!!! I think Gordon's development from his RS frosh yr to last yr was leaps and bounds. The defensive backfield will be flat out FILTHY this season.
CB: P.Waggner, M.Teague
CB: E.Gordon, J.Coleman, I.Lanear, take your pick
FS: B.Randolph, B.Moore
SS: B.Brewer, L. McNiel
Razor784 writes:
First off welcome aboard, secondly with Dooley as your boss i'd keep that resume close by, you might need it again pretty soon
BreweryVol writes:
Well said.
VFL
volstokke writes:
I think this is a good hire. Teague is good athlete that changed positions and has never really been coached up. This will be perfect for him and Prentiss will become a shutdown corner.
TheVolSnake writes:
Sir
i 100% agree with you and you need to add into the mix the new commitments 3 of which will push for playing and starting time.
our biggest problem last year in the D. Backfield was the constant rotation of players and moving from one positions to another and back again. Lack of depth hurt bad. Each spot on the field makes you move (react) differently and changing from right side to left side and from safety to CB and back again doesn't work.
I don't know if you have seen the videos on McNeil and Bonner but both can delivers massive hits and are very strong tacklers.
TheVolSnake writes:
Barring Injuries and major issues I feel our Defense will be very good this year.
The New DC understands the SEC system and even though going to change the system has the personnel to fill the positions.
I liked Wilcox but he came from the WAC and didn't understand SEC and I think was over his head. remember Dooley had 2 weeks to fill the slots when he was hired and because of timing Wilcox was the best man at that time, he left not because of anything the Vol's did or didn't do. he left because a 150K per year pay raise and back to a conference he felt conformable with.
With ALL our new coaches this year and the players we have we should be fine across the board. I do worry about the running back situation and players need to step but in the spring and though out the year.
On the WR's D.Rodgers and Hunter understand you cant run till you catch the ball, all the others this last year dropped way to many passes that were in their hands, so the WR coach need to stress catching the ball.
O.line last year pass blocked well though out the year but had issues run blocking, part of the reason was coaching and rotating players run blocking takes Speed and Technique and I think the O. Line coach do a poor job last year of teaching Technique. The new coach I feel is a major upgrade and will make the O.line a force this year, so our running game will improve.
Also with the arguably the best WR Corp in the nation the D. Back will see the toughest competition in practice which will make them improve tremendously.
VolFanInTheBoro writes:
summers eve bag
dillpic writes:
Our DB's were freshman last year for the most part. You do realize we were playing our 5th string Saftey.
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