Tim Banks did a superb job as defensive coordinator for Tennessee this past year. Coaching a unit meant to complement an up-tempo offense built to maximizes possessions is extremely difficult, but the Vols have gotten significantly better under him each year and were top 10 in scoring defense in 2024, making him a Broyles finalist for best assistant coach.
As a result, it should come as no surprise that numerous other schools were eyeing him for the same position, including the Miami Hurricanes and the Clemson Tigers. It’s also well-deserved that he received an extension offer from Tennessee, as reported by Chris Low of ESPN.
However, even with an assistant as elite as Banks, the Vols must tread carefully in the NIL age.
Low reports that Banks’ annual salary will jump from $1.5 million to $2 million. While that’s to be expected, Josh Heupel can’t commit to constantly shelling out money for assistant coaches anymore. That’s money that could be used in NIL spending, and on defense in particular, players matter more than coaching.
A team’s NIL budget is in the range of $10-20 million for blue blood programs. With that in mind, $500,000 is more than enough to buy one elite player, maybe two solid players. With college football on the cusp of a moneyball era, nickel and diming coaches’ salaries may be the first step to buying more players. Banks can’t be an exception.
There were two games in which Banks looked out-schemed this year: At the Georgia Bulldogs and in the College Football Playoff at the Ohio State Buckeyes. Those happen to be two of the three teams he faced with top 10 caliber talent per 247Sports Composite talent rankings.
The Alabama Crimson Tide were the other team, and while Banks does deserve credit for laying the groundwork to shut down Jalen Milroe, it can’t be ignored that he was facing an offense that had a quarterback who was not a fit for it. As a result, that game deserves a bit of an asterisk.
None of this is to detract from the job Banks did this year. The point is that against truly elite competition, his defense’s lack of talent exposed itself. He does deserve some blame in those games, though, as he kept his same vanilla base defense and didn’t resort to creative blitzes necessary like he would when he was undermanned in previous years.
Still, the goal is clearly to get Tennessee to a point in which he can keep his defense vanilla. That means no real disguised blitz packages, elite pressure up front and a secondary led by lockdown cornerbacks. While UT is much closer than they were, they still haven’t arrived yet.
They won’t arrive without enough NIL funds.
Coaching will always be crucial in college football, and that’s not changing anytime soon, but Jimmies and Joes have to matter, and they are an even bigger deal on defense. As a result, shelling out money for a defensive coach should always come with caution. If anybody earned it, Banks did, but UT must be careful.
