With Jeremy Pruitt out on Rocky Top, Kevin Steele is the new leader of the Tennessee football program — at least for now — but the school has not yet cleared the way for its interim coach to remake the coaching staff in Knoxville.

According to Jimmy Hyams of Knoxville-based radio station WNML, the school is currently preventing Steele from making any coaching decisions when it comes to extending coaching contract or hiring new assistants.

“Tennessee has not year cleared acting head football coach Kevin Steele to hire assistant coaches or extend the contracts of current UT assistants, per a UT spokesman. That is expected to be resolved later this week,” Hyams reported on Tuesday.

Tennessee currently has open spots on the coaching staff at the offensive line position (Will Friend left for South Carolina and then quickly bolted for Auburn), defensive line position (Pruitt fired Jimmy Brumbaugh in the middle of last season), in addition to the two assistants that were fired for cause as Shelton Felton and Brian Niedermeyer are no longer on staff at Tennessee.

In addition to those openings, Tennessee receivers coach Tee Martin is working on an expiring contract that is set to be up at the end of the month and tight ends coach Joe Osovet recently interviewed for a position at UCF.

Steele, or whoever is Tennessee’s coach is next season, has a lot of gaps to fill on the coaching staff but Vol fans will have to sit patiently for the time being when it comes to filling those spots.