How New Offensive Coordinator Mike DeBord Can Win over Tennessee Fans

With so much returning talent and the Tennessee football program on the uptick, the hiring of Mike DeBord—Michigan's 58-year-old Olympic sports administrator—wasn't exactly met with a universal vote of confidence throughout the Big Orange Nation.

Message boards and the Twitter universe buzzed with equal parts snark and serious questions Thursday afternoon. There's even a fake account already set up lampooning DeBord as "Mike DeBoring."

Tennessee's official announcement Friday morning confirming the worst-kept secret in college football set off a predictable chorus of "Who?" and "Why?" from fans. The questions were so vocal the past couple of days that several national media members, including ESPN's Chris Low, reacted to the frenzy:

Assuredly, there's very little glitz and glamor to head coach Butch Jones' decision to hire DeBord. He hasn't been an offensive coordinator since 2007 or a coach of any sort since 2012.

The 30-plus-year veteran assistant served two separate stints as the Wolverines' offensive coordinator, winning one national championship, two Big Ten titles, two BCS appearances and coming within a three-point loss to Ohio State of playing for another national championship.

Still, the hiatus from coaching is odd for such a key position.

The hire, on its surface, is puzzling. After all, the Vols return all but one offensive starter to a unit that appears poised to break out in 2015.

With quarterback Joshua Dobbs, running back Jalen Hurd and others coming back, this would have been the perfect environment for a dynamic, innovative young mind to jump at the opportunity to come to UT.

Instead, Jones chose familiarity over fanfare.

DeBord was Central Michigan's head coach from 2000-03, where he hired Jones, who was eventually elevated to head coach. The duo have a history.

The biggest question remains: Who is going to mentor Dobbs and UT's young stable of quarterbacks? DeBord was also given the title of "quarterbacks coach" along with the coordinator position, but he hasn't served much time in the former role.

But graduate assistant Nick Sheridan is still on staff and worked a lot with the signal-callers under former offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian, so he'll continue to help in that role. Regardless, DeBord's hire gives Jones continued continuity, which always has been important to UT's coach.

Jones always has been loyal, as evidenced by his bringing most of his staff with him from Cincinnati.

Among that staff were Bajakian and defensive coordinator John Jancek, neither of whom UT fans were thrilled about. At the time, Jones told the Big Orange Nation, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press' Patrick Brown, "I can assure you we will put together the best football staff in the country."

Though Bajakian never really produced big numbers, the Vols finally were showing signs of improvement before he bolted a couple of weeks ago for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' quarterbacks coaching position.

Jancek has led UT to steady improvement over the course of his two seasons, and most Vols fans are thrilled about the progress on that side of the ball. Heck, the hire of Jones himself was ridiculed loudly and openly by a fanbase that thought they deserved better.

Two full seasons later, Tennessee is recruiting at the highest level in the country and is coming off a 7-6 season and a TaxSlayer Bowl victory. The Vols are also a B/R pick to win the SEC East next year with so much talent returning.

In other words, Jones has earned the right to be trusted. Just because the hires don't always appear to be what the fans want, they've worked out for the most part thus far.

If a search that began with DeBord but included names such as Boise State's upstart coordinator Mike Sanford Jr., Arizona State's Mike Norvell, Arizona's Rod Smith and North Carolina State's Matt Canada wound up coming full circle to DeBord again, how can anybody be concerned whether Jones did his due diligence?

Still, as was the case with Jones and Jancek, DeBord's going to have to prove his worth on the field. How's he going to do that?

Run Jones' Offense to a 'T'

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With all the young stars aligned and in place to make a nice offensive leap next year, the last thing Jones wanted to do was change his offensive direction.

That's probably a big reason he was reluctant to relinquish the reigns to a coordinator who would have commanded control.

Instead, Jones gets a guy he can trust in DeBord, even though the assistant has a history of running mostly a Power-I formation.

Make no mistake: DeBord won't be running that scheme at Tennessee. If so, he wouldn't be coming. Rocky Top Insider's Daniel Lewis said the same in a radio interview with RTI Radio on Thursday:

This reeks of Jones' hiring somebody who will call plays within the framework of his zone-read-option offense, keep a lot of the same playbook and terminology and expand upon it with some wrinkles from his experienced resume. That's obviously the hope.

You can't blame Jones for wanting to hire someone he trusts who will keep the same scheme that has served him well at CMU and Cincinnati; the one that has shown signs of breaking through with a full stable of talent in the rugged SEC.

Ask yourself if you think it's best for the Vols to cram a new playbook into their offseason schedules? If so, it would burn all that time they spent hammering on the Jones-Bajakian formula last year.

DeBord is in a fine position to be successful. Bajakian already went through the struggles of getting UT's roster in position to run the scheme, and now in Dobbs, the Vols finally have a quarterback tailor-made for it. With the players in place, DeBord just has to take this offense and not break it.

In other words, he has to avoid being Dave Clawson, whose disastrous 2008 offense led to legendary coach Phillip Fulmer's dismissal.

This is Mike DeBord's job, but he's going to be running Butch Jones' offense. He's a caretaker with a garage full of shiny new cars. As long as he keeps the same navigation system and doesn't wreck them, he'll be just fine.

Lend a Much-Needed Hand

Elaine Thompson/Associated Press

It's no secret that the position that has struggled the most since Jones took over is the offensive line.

Though the Vols put up relatively decent rushing totals in 2013, the line underachieved for a unit with four seniors (including three who went on to be rookie starters in the NFL) and a junior who left early. Then this past year, UT struggled mightily in the trenches.

Offensive line coach Don Mahoney really hasn't inspired a ton of confidence in his two seasons in Knoxville.

So it's an underrated benefit that DeBord's experience is chiefly as an offensive line coach. In 16 of his 32 coaching years he's helmed the offensive front, so it certainly doesn't hurt to have a longtime veteran aboard with that level of expertise who has coached in the NFL.

The Vols have a group of six linemen who started at times last year. They also have a strong class of Drew Richmond, Venzell Boulware, Jack Jones, Chance Hall and Zach Stewart coming in, so there are more kids for DeBord to help mold.

DeBord's main area of focus will no doubt be play-calling, facilitating Jones' offense and advancing it. But every offensive coordinator has a position of focus, and DeBord's will almost assuredly be the offensive line. 

While at Michigan, he helped groom linemen such as Steve Hutchinson, Jeff Backus and Jon Jansen. Hutchinson and Jansen were both first-team All-Americans, so DeBord has a track record of coaching elite linemen.

DeBord will help bring the new guys along and get the most out of the returning players. They need all the help they can get there, and some new blood will stir things up a bit.

Second Time's the Charm

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Way back in 2008, Fulmer interviewed DeBord, a successful veteran with pronounced success, to be his offensive coordinator at Tennessee. Instead, the longtime UT coach chose Clawson, whose ill-fated "Clawfense" ultimately helped usher Fulmer into an early retirement.

All these years later, Clawson has experienced a successful head coaching tenure at Bowling Green and is going into his second season at Wake Forest. Fulmer is still retired, and DeBord has been semiretired.

Now DeBord gets a second chance to coach in Knoxville. He'll try not to follow in the footsteps of Clawson.

To be clear, Jones is in absolutely no danger of being fired anytime soon. He is still a darling among UT fans, has the program on the upswing, recruits with the best in the country and looks ready to win big.

But make no mistake: This is an important hire.

Any time a coach hires a coordinator, it's a pivotal point for his program. When one hires a guy who isn't universally loved throughout his fanbase—as is the case with DeBord—the magnifying glass begins to concentrate a little more heat on the head coach.

Tennessee has a quarterback with elite potential, a talented group of running backs, a stable of pass-catchers that rivals anybody in the league and an offensive line that is going on its second year of playing together. It has three incoming freshmen quarterbacks and a sturdy class full of 4- and 5-star prospects.

It all lines up for DeBord to be successful running Jones' scheme in a transitional period that is going to determine the trajectory of the program.

If he coaches them up, UT fans will look at this hire as just the latest in a long line of times they should have trusted their coach's judgment. If he doesn't, Tennessee will have much bigger concerns that who is calling plays.

Brad Shepard covers SEC football and is the Tennessee Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow Brad on Twitter @Brad_Shepard.