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Former Tennessee assistant Mike DeBord lands offensive coordinator role with pro team
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Mike DeBord may have “retired” twice but the longtime coaching veteran just can’t seem to give up on coaching football.
After leaving Indiana in late December in what was described as his retirement, DeBord was recently announced as the offensive coordinator with the San Diego Fleet of the Alliance of American Football League. Former St. Louis Rams head coach Mike Martz is now the head coach of the San Diego Fleet.
If you are unfamiliar with the league, it is a new spring football league set to debut the week after Super Bowl LIII. The games will be televised by CBS and the CBS Sports Network.
This odd turn of events should sound somewhat familiar to Tennessee fans as Butch Jones once described DeBord’s departure from Rocky Top as a retirement, only to see DeBord take over Indiana’s offense not long after leaving Knoxville.
DeBord explained his decision to jump back into coaching to Jeff Goldberg of the AAF’s official website.
“I’ve always called it an addiction,” DeBord said. “We’re all addicted to football. When you get to a certain age, you want to be around a certain type of coaching staff, a certain type of players. I wouldn’t have gone to work for someone I didn’t know. At this stage of my life, when Mike (Martz) called, it was automatic.”
If DeBord really is addicted to coaching, that would certainly explain why he just can’t stay away from the game.
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
