Following the addition of Jim Chaney, could Tee Martin join the Tennessee staff?

After 44 days, Tennessee’s search for an offensive coordinator ended on Tuesday night with the hiring of Jim Chaney. The Vols reportedly outbid Georgia for Chaney’s services and will pay him up to 1.6 million annually. With that behind us, focus will now shift to Tee Martin, who has been connected to the Tennessee staff in recent weeks.

The latest piece of news comes from Trey Wallace, who reports that the Jim Chaney hire was ‘key’ in the process of adding Martin to the staff.

Martin was let go by USC following a 5-7 season after the offense ranked just 83rd in the country in 2018. Since then, Martin has been connected assistant coaching jobs at both Louisville and Tennessee. Could the former national championship winning quarterback finally return to the Vols’ staff after all this time?

Adding Martin would mean someone on the offensive staff having to go, of course. But getting him on staff may be worth it. There’s the obvious Tennessee ties there, but there’s also his status as a rockstar recruiter. He won 247’s recruiter of the year in 2016 after being credited with landed 11 commitments for the trojans during that cycle. Adding him to an already loaded staff of recruiters is clearly something Pruitt is interested in.

The only question is, who would leave in this scenario? Many have suggested Chris Weinke, who was hired to coach the running backs last season.

Martin started his coaching career in the Georgia high school ranks, before becoming the quarterbacks coach at New Mexico in 2009. He moved on to coach receivers at Kentucky in 2010, before taking the same job with USC two years later. He was promoted to co-offensive coordinator in 2016, then took the full title in 2018 after Tyson Helton left for Tennessee.