📡 Report: Vols hiring Alabama support staffer, Kerry Stevenson

[SEC Sports]

Report: Vols hiring Alabama support staffer

The Alabama Connection at Tennessee continues to grow.

247sports.com

The Alabama Connection at Tennessee continues to grow.

Alabama Director of Player Development Kerry Stevenson is set to join the Vols in a “support staff” role, according to a Tuesday night report from AL.com's Matt Zenitz.

Stevenson has been with the Crimson Tide since 2013 after spending a decade as the head coach at Vigor High School in Mobile-area Prichard, Ala., where he won 85 games and one state championship.

Tennessee’s connections with Third Saturday in October rivalry with Alabama unsurprisingly have grown since former Crimson Tide player, defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt took the head-coaching position in Knoxville. Pruitt’s served as Alabama’s defensive coordinator from 2016-17, and Stevenson also spent both of those seasons with the Tide.

Several assistants and support-staffers have made the trip up Interstates 59, 24 and 75 from Tuscaloosa to Knoxville in the Pruitt era.

Tennessee’s new defensive coordinator, Derrick Ansley, came to Knoxville after serving as defensive backs of the Oakland Raiders, but Ansley went to Oakland after working for Pruitt and Nick Saban at Alabama.

Stevenson has at least one major hobby away from the football field. He’s a lifelong fan and writer of poetry, and recently he published a book of those poems called “Inspirations in Life … Inspired by Faith, Family, Friends and Football.”

“I’d never thought about writing a book. Never,” said Stevenson told AL.com last month at a book signing in Mobile. “But I used to write poems to motivate and inspire people, encourage them. And it got to the point that I started sharing them with people, and they wanted me to. So, all I would do is ask them to give me a title.

“One lady told me, ‘Coach, this is a masterpiece. Every kid in the country needs this.’”

Stevenson referred to his job at Alabama as a “life coach” position, and he said he’s been motivated to help young people since he was young, and it took a “village” to raise him after his single mother had a “nervous breakdown.”

From that point forward, Stevenson told AL.com he felt a calling to help young men who needed it.

“Kerry Stevenson is a man of God that’s been sent to love, nurture, strengthen, motivate, inspire and encourage other people,” he said. “I’m blessed. God has put me in a place to mentor some young men and try to guide and steer them in the right direction. Because a lot of those kids that we have to mentor every day, God has already sent me through those situations they’re going through.

“My job is to make sure those guys get to where they need to be as far as class, tutoring … I make sure they get their degree.

 

[50+yeartidefan]

Sounds like Bama should have worked harder to keep him...

 

[252BAMA]

Another interesting link on that website.

George Teague details Jeremy Pruitt’s USA Football National Conference speech

“He really focused on high school coaches to be apart of what he is doing at Tennessee. He wants to go over above and beyond. It was more of just to build a relationship, it was for us (high school coaches) to call their offices and come visit and talk to the coaches and watch film, do breakouts and that everyone is going to be welcome. It left me with a very positive impression and after he was finished with his hour speech, I called my staff and said we need to go to Tennessee.”

https://volswire.usatoday.com/2019/0...erence-speech/

 

[TerryP]

Sounds like Bama should have worked harder to keep him...

It's my understanding he's well vested in the Alabama retirement system. This easily could be him setting up another income stream in retirement--this one from the state of Tennessee.

 

[TUSKtimes]

What can you say? The guy loves Pruitt. He stayed in his house 2 years rent free, that suggest they get along very well. That's the other side of Pruitt, he has a lot of relationships and he comes off as a personable kind of guy, away from the sidelines, that is.

 

[50+yeartidefan]

What can you say? The guy loves Pruitt. He stayed in his house 2 years rent free, that suggest they get along very well. That's the other side of Pruitt, he has a lot of relationships and he comes off as a personable kind of guy, away from the sidelines, that is.

Sure seems so.....but.....what was the deal at UGA..... kirby wsnt high on him...and neither was Ritch..... why did he have such a short stay at fsu....what was the issue there?...was it jimbo?... @TerryP
Was there issues?

 

[Elderfalsedemigod]

Another interesting link on that website.

George Teague details Jeremy Pruitt’s USA Football National Conference speech

“He really focused on high school coaches to be apart of what he is doing at Tennessee. He wants to go over above and beyond. It was more of just to build a relationship, it was for us (high school coaches) to call their offices and come visit and talk to the coaches and watch film, do breakouts and that everyone is going to be welcome. It left me with a very positive impression and after he was finished with his hour speech, I called my staff and said we need to go to Tennessee.”

https://volswire.usatoday.com/2019/0...erence-speech/

Pruitt is still working to rebuild relationships that Dooley destroyed when he was there

 

[50+yeartidefan]

Need to get himoutta there then....
Tn football scapping bottom is ..ah...so....WONDERFUL

 

[mando]

Need to get himoutta there then....
Tn football scapping bottom is ..ah...so....WONDERFUL

This!!!!!

 

[TerryP]

Sure seems so.....but.....what was the deal at UGA..... kirby wsnt high on him...and neither was Ritch..... why did he have such a short stay at fsu....what was the issue there?...was it jimbo?... @TerryP
Was there issues?

Three things here, two make sense to me.

Kirby wasn't high on him? That's lost on me.

Pruitt wasn't high on Richt and let it be known. Richt didn't like being approached in the manner Pruitt chose and then there was friction between those two as well. He (JP) wasn't high on how the UGA administration felt about spending money (in areas they desperately needed to) and it's of note that as soon as they had a regime change in Athens the UGA admin loosened the purse strings for Kirby.

The move from FSU to UGA had a few moving parts with a lot of them being football and career related along with a few "social" issues and stories that ran rampant in Tallahassee. The offer from UGA was 850K per season which was 350K more than he was making at FSU. Those around Florida State program say they were ready to put another offer up for Pruitt but it never made it to that point. They likely could have matched the money he'd make, they weren't going to have the ability to offer the same resources as UGA. (...and some of those promised resources that were going to be given to Jeremy weren't which led to the friction between the UGA Admin/Richt and Pruitt.)

 

[JoseyWalesTheOutlaw]

JP did more for UGA football in his short stay than anybody. He called the UGA brass for not having the indoor facility and he made it known that Football was serious bidness while on the UGA thus bringing light to the Rev Richt. JP left FSU for money at UGA. JMO but I don't believe Kirby and JP are or never were best buddies. If I had a choice on which guy was the DC then it would be JP.

 

[50+yeartidefan]

@JoseyWalesTheOutlaw @TerryP
Ok.. a short stay at both... so i guess KS just had his own DC in mind...
JP was such a proven DC that i just figured it may have been from something in the past where they worked together....
I cant see UGA not putting out the resources Bama does...
FSU seemed to be a gold mine ...with jimbo and JP.... but maybe not..
Of course he and nick knew each other ..so maybe Bama was a destination

 

[JoseyWalesTheOutlaw]

@JoseyWalesTheOutlaw @TerryP
Ok.. a short stay at both... so i guess KS just had his own DC in mind...
JP was such a proven DC that i just figured it may have been from something in the past where they worked together....
I cant see UGA not putting out the resources Bama does...
FSU seemed to be a gold mine ...with jimbo and JP.... but maybe not..
Of course he and nick knew each other ..so maybe Bama was a destination

FSU was cheap but Jimbo went deep to get JP to FSU. The former President of UGA Adams loved Richt and protected the guy. UGA had the resources to keep up with the Jones's but Adams didn't spend them.....He gone and Richt followed him as well.