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According to Volquest.com, Tennessee and running backs coach Robert Gillespie have parted ways. Gillespie was on Butch Jones’ staff during his time at Tennessee and was retained by Jeremy Pruitt after he was hired in December.
BREAKING: Tennessee and running backs coach Robert Gillespie have parted ways. Jeremy Pruitt will begin a search for a new running backs coach immediately. pic.twitter.com/qhRGMycMwL
— Volquest Staff (@Volquest_Rivals) February 13, 2018
This comes just days after national signing day, which featured a recruiting celebration that Gillespie was a part of. So the timing of this is pretty fascinating. Volquest reported that the reasons for the split were unclear at this time.
Gillespie was officially announced as a part of the Tennessee staff last week in a release. It was reported that he would be making just north of $500,000 annually.
Coach Gillespie had been with Tennessee since 2013. He took over for Jay Graham, who was a part of Derek Dooley’s staff at Tennessee. Graham was retained by Jones before taking the same role with Florida State. We’ve got a pretty similar situation here, although we still aren’t sure of Gillespie’s future plans.
So suddenly, Tennessee has another assistant coach to hire. We just thought we were done this year.