Texas Football: 4 best replacements for WR coach Brennan Marion

Kelsey Pope, Tennessee WR coach

A possible candidate to consider out of the SEC that certainly has a good track record in terms of developing wide receivers of late is the Tennessee Volunteers’ first-year WR coach Kelsey Pope. The recently-promoted Pope is one of the rising stars around the college football coaching landscape.

He was promoted last offseason by head coach Josh Heupel from an offensive analyst at Tennessee to wide receivers coach when the Vols lost former WR coach Kodi Burns to the NFL’s New Orleans Saints.

Prior to serving as Tennessee’s wide receivers coach and an offensive analyst in Knoxville, Pope was the wide receivers coach/passing game coordinator at FCS Gardner-Webb. That was his first job at the Division I level with the title of coordinator.

The first actual full on-field coaching position that Pope held at the Division I level came as the wide receivers coach for FCS Tennessee Tech in 2019. Pope was an instrumental part of coaching up one of the best offenses in Tennessee Tech football history during the 2019 season.

Tennessee Tech averaged nearly 30 points per game and 240 passing yards en route to a fantastic 2019 campaign offensively.

Furthermore, Pope has recruited well at the wide receiver position in the last eight or 10 months for the Vols. Tennessee signed two top 150-ranked recruits at the position in the 2023 class. And it looks like the Vols are well on their way to landing one of the top five-star wideouts in the 2024 class, which is a recruitment that Pope is spearheading with St. Louis product Ryan Wingo.

Early in his run as a college assistant coach/coordinator, Pope is starting to make waves both in terms of his impact on developing players at the position and his success on the recruiting trail. Checking those boxes is something that could catch Sark’s eye if the fit is right and the cost wouldn’t be too outrageous to nab Pope from Tennessee.