According to Austin Price of On3’s Volquest, Tennessee hired former Cincinnati running backs coach De’Rail Sims to replace Jerry Mack, who recently left for the same position with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Sims, a South Carolina native, leaves the Bearcats after two seasons following spending the two previous seasons at Louisville, all with current Cinci coach Scott Satterfield. Before that, he spent time coaching RBs at East Carolina, James Madison, Western Carolina and Carson Newman.
The last three years, Sims oversaw his teams’ rushing attacks finish inside the NCAA’s top-25 with Louisville ranking second in the ACC in rushing the past two seasons. The Cardinals topped 200 yards on the ground per-game in 2021 and 2022, scoring 25 and 29 TDs, respectively. Sims has led prolific ground games at each of his stops during his still relatively young coaching career — while with the Cardinals, he coached conference rookie of the year Rahjai Harris to 600-plus yards and four TDs in eight games. Prior to that, he spent three seasons at James Madison, where the team went 28-2 during that span, won an FCS title in 2016 and finished second in 2017.
The offense was propelled by the team’s rushing attack — one that ranked fourth in the country in TDs with 108, sixth in yards with more than 9,400 and 13th in yards per-game at nearly 220 during Sims’ tenure.
Madison was particularly successful in 2016:
