In the wild 2025 college football coaching carousel, one job being filled often means another one opening. That’s the situation with Toledo at the moment. The Rockets lost Jason Candle to UConn, who lost Jim Mora to Colorado State, who fired Jay Norvell.
Now, Toledo is looking to find its next head coach. Dave Briggs of The Blade, who covers Rockets football, put together a shortlist of coaches that could be considered for the job. On the list included current Tennessee defensive coordinator Tim Banks.
“The 53-year-old Tennessee defensive coordinator has strong MAC Ties,” Briggs wrote. “Banks, a Detroit native, played at Ball State and coached at Bowling Green and Central Michigan.”
Banks joined Josh Heupel at Tennessee in 2021 to be his defensive coordinator and safeties coach. After inheriting a roster well behind the SEC standard, he helped turn the unit into arguably the best in the country in 2024. The defense was nearly the sole reason the team made the College Football Playoffs, while the offense struggled.
However, this past season, the defense came plummeting back down to earth. The Vols ranked third-to-last in the SEC in yards allowed per game (395.3) and points allowed (28.8).
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Banks currently has no head coaching experience, but has been a defensive coordinator since 2007. From 2007-09, he served 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. If Banks does stay on staff at UT, he will be facing the Illini in the Music City Bowl.
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. There was buzz about the potential of Banks rejoining Franklin at Virginia Tech, but the Hokies hired former head coach Brent Pry instead.
Also on the list to possibly land the Toledo job is former Heupel running backs coach Jerry Mack. He was on staff from 2021-23 before joining the Jacksonville Jaguars in the NFL. This past season, he took over Kennesaw State and led the Owls to a CUSA championship in his first year.
