Josh Heupel promotes analyst Alec Abeln to Tennessee's tight ends coach

Josh Heupel would much rather fill voids in his coaching staff by hiring from within his own program rather than conducting a search for outside candidates.

After Alex Golesh departed Tennessee to become the head coach at USF, Heupel decided to promote Joey Halzle to the Vols' offensive coordinator role. Now, Heupel has decided on his next tight ends coach.

Alec Abeln – who's been an offensive analyst for the Vols since 2021 – has been promoted to Tennessee's tight ends coach, a source confirmed to VolReport on Thursday afternoon. On3 first reported the news.

Abeln, who fills another void left by Golesh's departure, was an offensive lineman at Missouri while Heupel was the Tigers' offensive coordinator. Following his playing days, Abeln held graduate assistant roles at Mizzou, UCF and Ole Miss before joining the Tennessee staff.

In addition to Heupel promoting Halzle to offensive coordinator and Abeln to tight ends coach, the Vols' head coach also elevated Kelsey Pope from an offensive analyst role to the team's wide receivers coach following the 2021 season.

So far, hiring from within has worked out well for Heupel and Tennessee.

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