It looks the Vols have at least given themselves a chance with one recently de-committed prospect, however, with the hiring of former Penn State defensive coordination Bob Shoop to the same position in Knoxville.
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Shoop’s deal is for 3 years, and valued at $1.15 million a year. He turned that job down, reportedly after receiving a pay raise from Penn State.
Shoop revamped Penn State’s defense in his first season in Happy Valley, taking a disjointed unit from John Butler’s one-year tenure and turning it into the FBS’ second best group in total defense. Hoke, who took this season off from coaching after his ouster in Ann Arbor, has multiple ties to Jones and Tennessee’s coaching staff, and he visited the Vols during preseason practice in August.
“We are very excited about the addition of Bob Shoop to our coaching staff”, Jones said. He brings a wealth of experience at the highest level and possesses all the qualities we were looking for as we went through this process. As we pointed out earlier this week, Shoop’s defenses at Vandy were in the Top 25 in yards per play allowed each year.
“I would like to thank Mr. Hart and Coach Jones for giving me this opportunity”, Shoop also said in the statement. Now, I do not think we will see some sort of exodus of defensive recruits with Shoop gone, but, having a coach they all already have a relationship with take over as defensive coordinator can only help keep recruits firm in their commitment. That year three projection Franklin put in place – the year where he expected to team to move past NCAA sanctions, understand how the program is run and have everything in place- certainly isn’t lining up with where he thought this program would be at this point. In his three seasons at Vanderbilt, Shoop’s defenses finished 29th, 15th and 44th nationally in scoring defense.
Penn State’s defense ranked No. 2 in the nation in total defense (allowing 278.7 yards per game) in 2014 and 14th (324.5) in 2015.
This is a great time for his defensive coordinator career to begin. Senior safety Adrian Amos earned honorable mention All-Big Ten accolades and safety Marcus Allen was a Freshman All-America and Big Ten All-Freshman selection.
A logical conclusion to replace the defensive coordinator would be the “promotion” of linebackers/assistant head coach Brent Pry to fill the role.
With Shoop and Donovan out, James Franklin is losing more protection around his own job security. Under Shoop’s guidance, senior cornerback Casey Heyward finished with seven interceptions in 2011 and earned All-America and All-SEC honors.
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Among his other coaching stops were Boston College, Army, Villanova, Virginia, Northeastern and Yale, his alma mater.
