Vols T logoKNOXVILLE - New Tennessee football coach Butch Jones added another former Volunteer to his staff.
Terry Fair, a four-year starting defensive back and return man on some of Tennessee's successful teams in the 1990s, will join Jones' program in a defensive quality control position, the program announced Monday.
After finishing his NFL career in 2005, Fair coached defensive backs at Phoenix College, an Arizona junior college, for three years. He's been the co-host of an afternoon radio show in Knoxville the last couple of years.
An All-SEC freshman-team selection in 1994, Fair made All-SEC teams in 1996 and 1997. The Detroit Lions picked him 20th overall in the 1998 NFL draft. He started 48 games in four seasons with Detroit before injuries derailed his career in 2002.
Tennessee confirmed Jones' support staff job Monday, with one remaining opening for a second offensive graduate assistant. Graduate assistants Cody Kempt (offense), Chase Gibson (defense) and Larry Knight (defense) followed Jones from Cincinnati. Kempt played quarterback at Oregon and Montana State, and Knight played defensive end for Jones at Central Michigan.
As for the other two quality control positions, Joe Bernardi (offense) remained on staff and Greg Meyer (special teams) followed Jones from Cincinnati, where he held the same role. Recruiting assistant Keith Pantling, associate strength coach Mike Szerszen and assistant strength coach Brandon Myles also came from Cincinnati. Greg Adamson, a former strength and conditioning graduate assistant at Central Michigan, joins the Vols as an assistant strength coach after working in a similar role at Winthrop.
Chris Spognardi, Jones' chief of staff at Cincinnati, is now the assistant to the head coach. New director of recruiting J.R. Sandlin was a recruiting intern at Alabama this season.
Among the unchanged positions on the support staff are Brad Pendergrass (director of football operations), Heather Irvin (assistant director of football operations), Scott Altizer (director of high school relations), Antone Davis (Vol for Life program coordinator), Jason McVeigh (head trainer/director of sports medicine), Joe Harrington (sports technology coordinator), Condredge Holloway (player relations) and longtime equipment staffers Roger Frazier, Max Parrott and Allen Sitzler.
Jenkins switches to UT
Ryan Jenkins, a four-star receiver prospect according to 247Sports, announced via his Twitter page Monday that he had switched his pledge from Clemson to Tennessee, where his father Lee played defensive back in the early 1980s.
The 5-foot-10, 181-pound Jenkins committed to the Tigers in July, but he took a visit to Tennessee last week after the Vols' new staff made him an offer in December. He had scholarship offers from Oklahoma State, UCLA, Missouri, Mississippi State, Louisville and Vanderbilt, among others.
Of the six prospects to commit to Tennessee since Jones' hiring, five previously pledged to other schools: Jenkins, defensive back Lemond Johnson (Auburn), athlete Malik Foreman (Vanderbilt) and tight end A.J. Branisel and offensive lineman Dylan Wiesman (Cincinnati).
Hutchinson Community College defensive tackle Ben Bradley, a former Tennessee commitment, tweeted Monday that he will sign with Auburn.