Tennessee assistant David Johnson leaving Jeremy Pruitt’s staff for position at Florida State
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With the Early Signing Period in the rearview mirror and the college football season coming to a close, it’s now time for the assistant coaching carousel to heat up.
Tennessee has learned that lesson the hard way on Friday as the team’s running back coach David Johnson is leaving Jeremy Pruitt’s staff to join Mike Norvell’s Florida State program. This news was first reported by Bruce Feldman of The Athletic.
Ironically enough, Pruitt hired Johnson away from Norvell’s Memphis program. Now that Norvell is running a Power 5 program, he hired back Johnson. Norvell pulled a similar move with his former Memphis offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham, who he lost to Auburn only to hire him back this offseason after landing the FSU job.
A source tells SDS that Tennessee analyst Joe Osovet is likely to be promoted to Pruitt’s full-time staff in the wake of Johnson leaving the program. Osovet previously turned New York-based junior college program ASA College from an unknown into an offensive force on the gridiron.
Osovet has been on staff at Tennessee for two seasons and has helped the offense develop its RPO game and has been arguably the program’s best recruiter among coaches not on the full-time staff.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
