Josh Heupel made an addition to his coaching staff Sunday, hiring Derek Jones as Tennessee football’s new cornerbacks coach. Heupel made the hire just days after Michael Hunter left Knoxville to join the Los Angeles Rams’ coaching staff.
Jones comes to Tennessee after spending the last four years as the defensive back’s coach at Virginia Tech. After the Hokies fired Brent Pry and hired James Franklin to replace him, Jones was back on the market.
Tennessee originally hired Hunter to replace Willie Martinez before the former Ohio State assistant made the move to professional football instead.
Like Hunter, Jones has experience working with new Tennessee defensive coordinator Jim Knowles. Jones was the cornerbacks coach and special teams coordinator at Duke from 2010-17 when Knowles was defensive coordinator and former Tennessee offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe was head coach.
Back in December after Virginia Tech’s season officially ended, Jones posted a video of him talking to his unit before the Hokies’ season-finale against rival Virginia. Here is part of what he said.
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“You can get souped up for this rivalry,” Jones said. “You can get your mind right for this rivalry, but there’s going to be a lot of things happen to you in life that you don’t know coming. The mindset that you learned from playing this game, the mindset your learned from having good leaders— those are the things that matter guys. It’s been a pleasure to coach every one of you. Like I told you today, none of us know what happens after tonight. But we’ve got one more opportunity together.”
Check out the complete speech below.
Being a college football coach is a journey and along that journey you will have multiple stops. Each stop rewards you with the blessing of meeting new people, encountering new experiences, but most importantly impacting and touching the lives of multiple young men. My time at… pic.twitter.com/wgYblFIF5X
— Derek Jones (@CoachdjCheetah) December 10, 2025
Tennessee football fully revamped its defensive coaching staff this offseason. Defensive line coach Rodney Garner and inside linebackers coach William Inge are the only two returning coaches.
Knowles is the new defensive coordinator and he hired a number of coaches that he previously had ties too including new outside linebackers coach Andrew Jackson and safeties coach Anthony Poindexter.
