Whether De'Rail Sims was playing youth football in Union, South Carolina, or NAIA football for Pikeville in Kentucky, he was always 200 or so miles from the University of Tennessee.
Sims now calls Knoxville home as the new running backs coach of the Volunteers.
"When I was growing up, being able to watch them on Saturdays — it was 'RBU' in my opinion," Sims said Monday afternoon in a news conference. "I watched Jamal Lewis when I was growing up. I watched Travis Henry when I was growing up. I watched Travis Stephens when I was growing up. I would see them run through the 'Power T,' and they were beating up on everybody.
"I wanted to be able to come here and play, but I wasn't good enough to play here."
Sims and linebackers coach William Inge are the two newcomers on Josh Heupel's staff, and each met with the media for the first time at their new locale. Sims is replacing Jerry Mack, who left last month to become running backs coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars, while Inge is replacing Brian Jean-Mary, who joined the Vols from Michigan and last month returned to the Wolverines.
They are the first two assistants since Heupel's inaugural staff to be hired from somewhere else, with receivers coach Kesley Pope and tight ends coach Alec Abeln having been promoted from roles as offensive analysts, and this is the first time Sims and Inge will have worked in the Southeastern Conference.
"You're kind of at the pinnacle," Inge said. "Everything you look at and everything you read about, most of the time the SEC has the gold standard. When you look at the gold standard, there are going to be a few teams historically who have been up there, and the one with the Power T has been one of those schools."
Said Sims: "When you start coaching, you always want to have your feet where you're planted at that point in time, but you always have goals in terms of the aspirations. Being able to get to the SEC was always a dream and a goal of mine."
Sims has climbed the ladder from Western Carolina (2013-15) to James Madison (2016-18) to East Carolina (2019-20) to Louisville (2021-22) to Cincinnati last season, where he helped the Bearcats rank sixth nationally with 217.1 rushing yards per contest. Louisville's two offenses with Sims on staff rushed for more than 200 yards a game as well.
In his third and final season with Western Carolina, the Catamounts traveled to Tennessee and lost 55-10. When asked what he remembered about that experience, Sims said, "We got our tail run out of the stadium. That's what I remember."
Tennessee no longer has Jaylen Wright, who rushed for 1,013 yards last year, or Jabari Small, but the Vols return Dylan Sampson, who capped his sophomore season with a 20-carry, 133-yard effort in the 35-0 shellacking of Iowa in the Citrus Bowl. Sampson has rushed for 1,001 yards and averaged 6.1 yards per carry through two seasons.
"I actually recruited Dylan when I was at the University of Louisville, so we had a prior relationship," Sims said. "He's been really good in terms of helping this transition. He's a coach on the field and a coach in the classroom as well."
Inge's arrival in Knoxville has been a little more chaotic by comparison.
He worked with new Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer as his defensive coordinator at Fresno State (2020-21) and as his co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Washington (2022-23). Inge even followed DeBoer to Tuscaloosa, where he was expected to be named outside linebackers coach, but then he chose to switch his wardrobe from crimson to orange.
"It's been like life in hyperspeed," Inge said. "You have a chance to compete for the national championship, and then you're getting ready to rebuild and get everything squared away there. Then there is change, and then there is more change.
"Then, literally in the last hour, there is Tennessee."
Inge, who grew up in Missouri and played defensive end for the late Hayden Fry at Iowa, said he got to know Tennessee defensive coordinator Tim Banks when both of them coached in the Big Ten. Inge worked at Indiana from 2103-15, and Banks was at Illinois at that time.
Fresno State's defense improved from 82nd to 20th nationally in points allowed under Inge, and Washington went from 11th among Pac-12 teams in rushing defense to third in his first season. He was asked Monday what he looks for at his position.
"Speed. Speed. Speed. Speed. Speed. Fast. Quick. Speed. Athletic," Inge said. "That's where the game is evolving to what you need today from a linebacker standpoint."
Vols honored
Tennessee swept the SEC players of the week in basketball and baseball on Monday afternoon with fifth-year senior guard Dalton Knecht and junior third baseman Billy Amick.
Knecht, who shared the award with South Carolina's Meechie Johnson, scored 52 combined points last week in Tennessee's victories over Auburn and Alabama. He is the first Vols player to claim the league honor four times in a single season since the award's inception in 1984-85.
Amick has seven home runs and 18 RBIs through 12 games this season, and he went 5-for-5 with three homers and five RBIs during the first two games of this past weekend's series against Bowling Green.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.
Tennessee Athletics photo by Andrew Ferguson / New Tennessee linebackers coach William Inge was part of a Washington staff this past season that competed for a national championship.