By Drew Lumpkin
On Saturday, former Tennessee running backs coach Jerry Mack will watch the Volunteers run through the T from the visitors’ sideline. For the first time in 2.5 years, he will be back in Neyland Stadium; however, this time he will be the head coach of the Volunteers’ Week 3 opponent, Kennesaw State.
“He’s a great leader of men,” Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel said. “He’s authentic. He’s a really good recruiter, and he’s able to hire a really good staff.”
Hired in 2021, Mack worked alongside Heupel for his first three years at Tennessee. During his time on Rocky Top, he recruited Tennessee’s current starting running back and 2024 Southeastern Conference Offensive Player of the Year DeSean Bishop.
The homegrown talent from Karns met Mack in 11th grade, and the following year, Bishop attended every home game in hopes of recruitment. Sharing Bishop’s Tennessee roots, the Memphis native still recalls this story today.
When Heupel called Mack in 2021 about joining him in Tennessee, Mack recalled it as a “perfect fit.”
Before coaching under Heupel, Mack was Rice’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 2017 to 2020. However, Mack isn’t the only Kennesaw State coach coming home to Rocky Top. Offensive coordinator Mitch Militello was an offensive analyst; special teams coordinator Kyle Blocker was a special teams analyst; running backs coach Aston Walter was an offensive assistant; and special teams assistant Dane Nussbaum was a student special teams coach.
“I think this upcoming opponent is a very familiar opponent for me. This team is really talented. When you look at it across the board, the size of that team that we’re going to play this week, Coach Heupel’s done a great job of putting together a really good SEC roster over the years. The size, the speed, the talent, the skill sets – you can see what recruiting does for you just over the course of time,” Mack said.
In his first season with Kennesaw State, Mack led the Owls to a Conference USA Championship just a year after the school was promoted to the Football Bowl Subdivision. Starting this season 1-1, the Owls opened with a shutout win over West Georgia, 47-0, followed by a home loss to Georgia State, 31-17.
Mack and his team have a different roster this year after his successful first season. Kennesaw State lost starter Amari Odom, its entire interior offensive line, and three running backs. On paper, it’s a “tuneup” game for the Vols; to Heupel, Kennesaw State is just as important as any upcoming opponent on the schedule.
“You better show up every Saturday. You look at the scores, media, your family, your girlfriend, whoever; they might wanna pigeonhole you as this, but you decide who you are collectively as a team and as a program,” Heupel said.
Not only will this be the first meeting between the two teams, but it will also be the Owls’ first-ever SEC opponent, a moment Mack says the team will “remember forever.” For most Kennesaw players, it will be their first experience of an SEC stadium atmosphere. Mack knows all too well what the Tennessee home crowd can do to a team.
“There are some things for crowd noise that we’ll do in practice to try to get those guys used to how loud it’s really going to be,” Mack said. “But there’s nothing that you can ever do to truly, truly get those guys ready for how it’s gonna be.”
While Kennesaw State is facing its first SEC opponent in program history this weekend, the Vols can look forward to facing their first of nine SEC opponents the following weekend when an Arch Manning-led Texas team comes to Knoxville. While that game will headline a Manning return to Rocky Top, this week’s game against Kennesaw State has become a homecoming for a former Heupel assistant.