Tennessee’s athletic department staged a passionate introduction of new offensive coordinator Mike DeBord on Friday.

DeBord, hired when Mike Bajakian left to become quarterbacks coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers late in the 2014-15 coaching carousel, sounded thrilled to return to college coaching after a long absence.

The 59-year-old hasn’t coached football in any capacity since 2012, serving as an athletics administrator at Michigan, but did work closely with the football team.

“I think I’m the happiest I’ve ever been,” DeBord said according 247Sports, adding that several NFL coaches had talked to him about joining their staff as well. “I’m truly excited. I get to do what my passion is, and that is to be a football coach at the college level, and to be a coordinator.

“I think there’s different types of coaches. There are people that maybe want to be a head coach, there’s people that maybe only want to be a coordinator, and there’s people who maybe want to be position coaches, and that’s all great. But my true passion in coaching is to coordinate an offense.

“And for Butch to give me this opportunity, and for Tennessee to give me this opportunity, again, I’m just thrilled, excited. We’re going at it full-speed right now.”

DeBord, head coach at Central Michigan from 2000-03 when Jones served as an offensive assistant, worked for the Seattle Seahawks (2008-09) and Chicago Bears (2010-12) most recently.

Twice an offensive coordinator for the Wolverines, the big question surrounding DeBord and the offensive staff is whether it contains enough quarterback expertise. Josh Dobbs is a promising redshirt sophomore, but DeBord’s title hasn’t contained the word “quarterback” since 1986.

“I don’t feel like for me there will be an adjustment at all,” DeBord said, according to the Knoxville News-Sentinel. “I believe in everything we’re doing on offense. I believe in tempo. … I believe in all of the things were doing here.”

For his part, Jones put the hard sell on the hire, which wasn’t easy given that many of the best available coordinator options already had committed to a team for the 2015 season by the first week in February.

“I went coast to coast around the country. I interviewed many, many, many qualified candidates,” Jones said. “I will not discuss the names today of any of the individuals we interviewed, just out of respect for them and their current jobs and current institutions, but there was a high demand for this job. It was a very coveted position, and very rightfully so, because of what we’re building at Tennessee.

“But at the end of the day, Mike DeBord was the right fit.”