Jeremy Pruitt is still looking for a running backs coach. But in the meantime, he’s made a couple new additions to his support staff, and the latest came on Wednesday.
Pruitt has added Joe Osovet to his coaching staff at Tennessee. Osovet was the USA Sports Writers Junior College Coach of the Year in 2014 and has been coaching at ASA College for the last two seasons. According to Michael Bratton of Saturday Down South, Osovet will be on staff as an offensive quality control coach and not the next running backs coach for the Vols.
Osovet will be a quality control coach at Tennessee, not the new running backs coach. He can coach any position of offense. Adds Northeast experience/connections to UT’s staff https://t.co/oBMqVmnw0Q
— SEC Mike (@MichaelWBratton) February 14, 2018
Osovet himself tweeted out the news on Wednesday.
#GOVOLS#ROCKEYTOPONMONDAY pic.twitter.com/2a8UDNduAN
— Joe Osovet (@CoachOsovet) February 14, 2018
Osovet has been the head coach for both Nassau Community College and ASA College. He won the Coach of the Year award with Nassau but was highly successful with ASA College as well. Pruitt had previously interviewed Osovet when looking for a wide receivers coach.
As a head coach, Osovet took the Avengers, a program that began in just 2009, to a 9-1 record this past season. He also had three players ranked inside the top 50 JUCO players in the 2018 class during this past recruiting cycle. Two of those players, offensive lineman Badara Traore and offensive lineman Johncarlo Valentin, were players the Vols pursued in the 2018 class.
Osovet is touted as a brilliant offensive mind and served as ASA College’s offensive coordinator as well as their head coach. The Avengers averaged 38.1 points per game and 446.3 yards per game in 2017.
Pruitt also added Bert Biffani from Florida State to his staff on Tuesday. Both Osovet and Biffani join former Vols Montario Hardesty and Kevin Simon on Pruitt’s support staff. None of these coaches will be on-field coaches.
