Tennessee hires De'Rail Sims as new RB coach
A week after losing two assistant football coaches, Josh Heupel has filled one vacancy.
DeRail Sims, who previously coached running backs at Cincinnati last season, has been hired by Tennessee for the same position. He replaces former running backs coach Jerry Mack, who joined the Jacksonville Jaguars staff earlier this month after three seasons in Knoxville.
The news was first reported by VolQuest.
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Sims has ties to East Tennessee, serving as the running backs coach and video coordinator for the NCAA Division II Carson-Newman football program in nearby Jefferson City in 2012.
A South Carolina native, Sims played two seasons between 2006-08 at Pikeville in Kentucky before joining the staff there as a student assistant in 2009. He earned his first full-time coaching job as an assistant at Millersville in 2010.
Sims' coaching career include stints at Western Carolina and James Madison where he was the the running backs coach when the Dukes won the 2016 FCS National Championship.
Sims moved into the FBS ranks at East Carolina before joining Scott Satterfield's staff at Louisville in 2021 where he oversaw a run game that ranked second in the ACC and top 25 nationally in rushing in 2021 and 2022.
Sims followed Satterfield to Cincinnati in 2023. In Sims' lone season with the Bearcats, running back Corey Kiner became just the 20th player in program history to rush for 1,000 yards, finishing with 1,047 yards.
Cincinnati running backs averaged 5.8 yards per game and rushed for more than 200 yards in 12 games.
MORE FROM VOLREPORT: Ranking Tennessee's offensive position groups for 2024
Sims will take over a productive running backs room at Tennessee. Despite losing 1,000-yard rusher Jaylen Wright and Jabari Small, the Vols are set to return Dylan Sampson, who rushed for 604 yards and six touchdowns on 106 carries as a sophomore last season.
Cam Seldon and Khalifa Keith return after limited carries as a freshmen while Tennessee added highly touted four-star signee Peyton Lewis to the fold.
Given the number of returning starters that Tennessee will feature on its offensive line for the 2024 season, the run game isn't expected to have too much drop off after finishing second in rushing in the SEC last season.
Heupel still has one more on-field staff position to fill after linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary returned to Michigan after three seasons at Tennessee last week.
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