KNOXVILLE — Shelton Felton takes on his first career position coaching job at the Power Five level during the 2020 season.
Felton was hired as Tennessee’s outside linebackers coach during the offseason. He returns to Tennessee after spending the 2018 campaign as a defensive quality control analyst in Jeremy Pruitt’s first season as the Vols’ head coach.
Felton left Tennessee in 2019 to serve as outside linebackers and defensive line coach at Akron.
Shelton Felton’s coaching history
- 2005-09: Crisp County (Ga.) High School, Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers
- 2010-12: Dooly County (Ga.) High School, Defensive Coordinator
- 2013-14: Colquitt County (Ga.) High School, Run Game Coordinator/Defensive Line
- 2015-16: Crisp County (Ga.) High School, Head Coach
- 2017: Chattanooga, Assistant Head Coach/Outside Linebackers
- 2018: Tennessee, Defensive Quality Control Analyst
- 2019: Akron, Outside Linebackers/Defensive Line
- 2020-present: Tennessee, Outside Linebackers
During Tennessee’s third week of fall training camp ahead of the 2020 season, Felton met with media for the first time and discussed returning to Rocky Top and reuniting with Pruitt.
Felton said he and Pruitt “developed a relationship through recruiting.”
“Getting the QC position, knowing Coach Pruitt for a long time, I worked with Rush Propst, I knew him through Coach Propst and I knew him through Georgia, Florida State and I have been blessed to have players that have been able to play in the SEC and he gave me a call when I was at Chattanooga and it was a no-brainer,” Felton said of working for Pruitt. “To be on this staff — to be part of this tree, how could you say no to it.”
Felton served as an assistant to Propst at Colquitt County High School from 2013-14. Pruitt was defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach for Propst at Hoover High School from 2004-06.
Propst is now in his first season as head coach at Valdosta High School. Propst previously discussed Tennessee’s recruiting pipeline to Valdosta as he hired two of Felton’s former assistants.
“I’ve hired two of his guys in Jeff Kent as defensive coordinator,” Propst said on the show “Tennessee Two-A-Days” of hiring Felton’s former assistants. “He worked for me in 2017 and 2018, and worked for Felton at Crisp County. Seneric McCurdy is our special teams coordinator and defensive line guy who worked for Shelton.
“He stays in contact with us constantly about these kids. I would imagine Tennessee will have their pick because of the relationship with Shelton, Jeremy and Todd (Watson), the guys I’ve got at Tennessee. Obviously they will be in the mix for kids at Valdosta. Jeremy has recruited this school and has built a lot of contacts in the city of Valdosta, so I think from a Tennessee perspective, Tennessee is always going to be welcome to Valdosta High School.”
The entire show with Propst can be listened to here.
