Tennessee fires former UK assistant after losing to UK

After a promising 2-0 start, the Tennessee Volunteers are reeling a bit.

Saturday was a demolition by the Kentucky Wildcats, who scored their biggest margin of victory in a road win over a ranked team in beating the Vols 34-7. Now, they’re attempting to shake things up by firing a coach.

Ironically, it’s a former Kentucky assistant.

Late Sunday night, Rivals’ Austin Price reported that defensive line coach and co-defensive coordinator Jimmy Brumbaugh had been let go by Tennessee. This was his first year in Knoxville, where he watched Kentucky lay waste to his Vols Saturday.

Brumbaugh was actually Kentucky’s defensive line coach from 2013-16. Part of Mark Stoops’ first staff in Lexington, Brumbaugh helped the Wildcats emerged from back-to-back 2-10 seasons to winning seven games and making the TaxSlayer Bowl in the 2016 season.

Following that breakthrough, Brumbaugh left to become the defensive line coach and co-defensive coordinator for Maryland, where he worked for the next two seasons before taking the same dual-role at Colorado in 2019. He was signed by Tennessee the following offseason to a two-year contract with a salary of $650,000 over both years of his deal.

It’s unfortunate to see Brumbaugh out of work, especially this early in the season. Then again, with the way COVID-19 is spreading throughout the SEC, maybe he’s the lucky one.