Tennessee set to hire defensive assistant from Penn State, per report
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Tennessee is making another change to its coaching staff for the 2026 season with the hiring of Penn State’s Andrew Jackson for a role working with the Volunteers’ front seven.
The Vols’ latest new hire was reported by CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz on Thursday afternoon. Jackson’s hire would continue Tennessee‘s push to put this season’s disappointing 8-5 campaign behind it. That 5th and final loss came on Tuesday night in the Music City Bowl, with the Volunteers falling to Illinois on a last-second field goal to put the finishing touches on a season that fell well short of expectations.
The urgency to turn it around in 2026 is showing quickly. Tennessee has hired a new defensive coordinator in veteran Jim Knowles, who won a national championship as Ohio State’s DC in 2024 before spending the 2025 season in the same role at Penn State. Speaking of Happy Valley, that’s where Jackson is arriving in Knoxville from, so his reported hire would reunite Jackson with Knowles for this coming season.
Before he got to Penn State for this past season, Jackson was the defensive line coach at West Virginia from 2021-24. Jackson had a lot of success in Morgantown, helping the Mountaineers rank among the Big 12’s top teams in run defense, sacks and tackles-for-loss. Tennessee will hope that performance from Jackson translates to Knoxville in 2026.
Jackson’s hire wasn’t even the only Tennessee coaching move reported on New Year’s Day. Earlier on Thursday, GoVols247 reported that the program wouldn’t be renewing the expiring contract of strength coach Kurt Schmidt.
Now, Jackson’s reported hire continues the reshuffling of the deck in Knoxville in the aftermath of a forgettable 5-loss season.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
