Tennessee football: 5 coaching replacements for Jeremy Pruitt

4. Lance Leipold, Buffalo

Leipold would be an extremely risky hire that could give Vols fans some Butch Jons flashbacks, but his performance over the last few years should get schools interested in prying him away from western New York. In eight seasons at his alma mater, Division-III Wisconsin-Whitewater, Leipold went 109-6, dominating the Mount Union rivalry by winning six D-III championships and going undefeated five times. Since arriving in Buffalo, he’s made them the class of the MAC, going 24-10 over the last three seasons, making the MAC Championship game twice, and ending 2020 as a Top 25 team.

Leipold’s specialty is offense, and his ability to make Tyree Jackson into a game-changing weapon and Kyle Vantrease into a solid game manager shows how he can improve quarterbacks. However, turning Jaret Patterson into one of the best backs in the country could revitalize a ground game that hasn’t gotten out of first gear in the last few years.

Asking Leipold to go from a mid-tier MAC school to one of the biggest brands in all of college football would be a monumental jump, but the chaos around Tennessee could make luring in elite candidates quite an ordeal. Leipold might not have a huge history of success at the FBS level, but it’s better to be a year early on coaches than a year late, and he could continue to improve his coaching resume by succeeding with Tennessee.