Josh Heupel introduces Tennessee’s defensive coaching staff

First-year Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel introduced his defensive staff.

KNOXVILLE, TN – March 08, 2021 – Defensive Coordinator Tim Banks of the Tennessee Volunteers during a press conference in the Ray and Lucy Hand Digital Studio in Knoxville, TN. Photo By Caleb Jones/Tennessee Athletics (Tennessee Athletic Communications)

Tim Banks — Defensive coordinator

“Coach Banks was important to me on the defensive side of the ball. I’ve got somebody that had a clear vision and had some experience in what they were doing on the defensive side of the football. I believe that our philosophies pair together extremely well. A guy that’s had a coordinator title during the last 14 years of his coaching career. You look at the last five years of what he’s been a part of at Penn State. You just look at their ability to create zero and negative plays. I think they’re top five or top 10 in pretty much every one of those categories over the last five years. It’s going to give us the ability to be multiple in what we do, be aggressive in nature, be a tremendous teacher, and I think will be a perfect fit for what we’re doing here in Knoxville, Tennessee. He’s done a great job at developing guys at all three levels as a coordinator, talking about defensive line, linebackers and the secondary position. He’ll work with us primarily on the back end with our secondary there, but I’m really excited about him.” — Josh Heupel on Tim Banks

NEXT: Josh Heupel discusses outside linebackers coach and special teams coordinator Mike Ekeler