SDS takes a tour through the SEC East and introduces you to each team’s linebackers coach.

Florida — Randy Shannon

Jim McElwain scored a hit with one of his first hires, bringing over Randy Shannon from Arkansas to coach linebackers and coordinate recruiting. Shannon has strong ties to south Florida, an area the Gators would love to start dominating again. Shannon came up coaching at Miami (Fla.) after a four-year playing career with the Hurricanes. He was there for the first seven years of his career before a stint with the Dolphins, coaching linebackers and serving as a defensive assistant in three years there. He returned to the college ranks as Miami’s DC in 2001, rising to head coach in 2007 and compiling a 28-22 record in four years. Shannon was most recently at Arkansas in 2014, where he was an assistant head coach as well as linebackers coach.

Georgia — Mike Ekeler (Inside LBs) and Kevin Sherrer (Sam and Star)

The Bulldogs have their linebacker responsibilities split between two coaches. Ekeler came over from Southern Cal a year ago to coach inside linebackers, and he’s worked as a linebackers coach for the better part of the last decade at Nebraska (2008-10), Indiana (2011-12) and then USC (2013). He also worked for well-regarded defensive mind Bo Pelini at LSU as a grad assistant (2005-07) and at Oklahoma (2003-04). Sherrer had previously been a DC at South Alabama. He has a strong pedigree as well, working in the Alabama program after rising up from the state’s biggest high school power, Hoover.

Kentucky — D.J. Eliot

The Wildcats defensive coordinator pulls double duty, coaching linebackers as well as running the defensive side of the ball. He came to the program along with head coach Mark Stoops in before the 2013 season, his first coordinator job. Eliot has worked his way up the coaching ladder, with three graduate assistant stops from 1999-2003. He was a position coach at Texas State, working with defensive backs and linebackers, then at Rice, where was recruiting coordinator and defensive line coach. Eliot got his highest profile job in 2010 when Florida State brought him on to coach defensive ends in 2010.

Missouri — Barry Odom

A former linebacker for the Tigers, Odom returns to his alma mater as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. Odom was brought on to replace Dave Steckel, Gary Pinkel’s long-time (and quite successful) DC. Odom comes from Memphis, where he held the same dual position for three years and helped turn those Tigers into one of the most improved defenses in the country. Prior to that, he got his first on-field college coaching gig with Mizzou, coaching safeties for Pinkel from 2009-11. The fifth-leading tackler in school history went into coaching immediately after his playing days, taking an assistant job at an Oklahoma high school before coming back to the state as a high school head coach for two seasons, then jumping into the administrative side of college football.

South Carolina — Kirk Botkin

Botkin has been coaching linebackers and Spurs (the Gamecocks’ hybrid safety-linebacker position) since 2012, working with some excellent defenses and coaching some playmakers in a linebackers group that has a nose for the ball. Botkin has a varied resume, having coached in both high school and college after a career the NFL. He spent four seasons in the 1990s with three NFL teams, playing under Bill Parcells, Jim Mora and Bill Cowher. Botkin was an All-SEC performer at Arkansas in 1992-93, and returned to coach special teams and defensive ends there in 2008-09, working alongside current Gamecocks co-DC Lorenzo Ward.

Tennessee — Tommy Thigpen

Thigpen, one of the most well-regarded recruiters in the country, came to Tennessee along with Butch Jones in 2013. He was familiar with the SEC before joining the Volunteers, coaching linebackers and safeties at Auburn from 2009-12. Thigpen was a four-year standout at North Carolina, earning All-ACC honors as a linebacker, after which he was drafted by the New York Giants. Thigpen broke into coaching as a GA with his alma mater, moving around as a defensive assistant from Tennessee State to Bowling Green to Illinois and back to UNC over a decade before landing at Auburn.

Vanderbilt — Kenwick Thompson

Vanderbilt’s outside linebackers coach is the only member of the staff with “linebackers” in his title. The former San Jose State DC came to Nashville along with Derek Mason last year after a year as a DC/LB coach. Prior to that, Thompson was at Cal coaching linebackers and serving as recruiting coordinator, also adding associate head coach to his roles in his final season. With the Golden Bears, he coached standout Mychal Kendricks, a 2011 All-American and the 2012 Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year. Thompson got his first coaching gig as a player-coach in the Italian American Football League in 1990 before returning to the U.S. to coach at Harding, his alma mater.