When Tennessee football and Auburn meet in Neyland Stadium in 2026, there’s going to be a lot of familiarity. Not only are the Tigers now coached by former Josh Heupel offensive coordinator Alex Golesh, but he just picked up former Vols defensive coordinator Tim Banks as the team’s safeties coach and co-defensive coordinator after Heupel fired him this offseason.
As Golesh rounds out his staff, which also includes former Heupel wide receivers coach Kodi Burns and offensive lineman Parker Ball, he’s been releasing statements on the hires. Here’s what he said about the addition of Banks.
“Tim Banks is going to be a huge asset to our staff at Auburn,” Golesh said. “Tim and I have worked together twice before and competed against each other for years, so I know that he’s one of the most respected defensive minds in college football. He’s an elite teacher who develops players at the highest level, and beyond the football part, he’s a man of tremendous character who cares deeply about young people. Our program is going to benefit from having Tim working alongside the rest of our staff.”
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Banks has been a defensive coordinator since 2007. From 2007-09, he served in the role at Central Michigan. From 2010-11, he was the co-defensive coordinator at Cincinnati. Then, from 2012-15, he was at Illinois as the defensive coordinator.
In 2016, Banks got the job under James Franklin as the co-defensive coordinator at Penn State. He stayed there until 2020, then hopped over to Knoxville to join Heupel in 2021. There was buzz about the potential of Banks rejoining Franklin at Virginia Tech, but the Hokies hired former head coach Brent Pry instead.
After Heupel pulled the trigger and fired a position coach or coordinator for the first time in his UT tenure, he was tasked with filling Banks’ position. He quickly turned around and replaced Banks with former Penn State, Ohio State and Oklahoma State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles.
