Tennessee Appears to Have Its Next Offensive Line Coach

Tennessee Appears to Have Its Next Offensive Line Coach

Tennessee has not officially announced any staff hires for Josh Heupel yet, but it appears his offensive staff is coming together quickly, and it is going to have some UCF flavor to it. Glen Elarbee has served under Josh Heupel at UCF for the last three seasons and worked with him at Missouri prior to that, and it appears he will follow him to Knoxville. 

Elarbee sent out the first offer of the Josh Heupel era at Tennessee last night to Austin Uke, a coveted 2021 offensive tackle prospect from Dallas (Texas). 

While not yet officially announced, this is a pretty firm indicator that he is the guy for Tennessee’s offensive line. Elarbee is a guy who has been extremely successful under Josh Heupel and understands how his system works from top to bottom.  

According to his UCF bio: “Elarbee’s first year in Orlando in 2018 was highlighted by one of the best offensive lines in program history, as the Knights repeated their undefeated regular season and won a second straight American Athletic Conference Championship. UCF set the program rushing record with 3,448 yards on the ground behind a powerful line, which was the eighth-best ground attack in the country.”

However, he continued his success in 2019, as the potent offensive attack thrived with freshman quarterback Dillon Gabriel behind center. The UCF team averaged 540.5 yards per game with Elarbee’s unit being effective in each facet of the game. The balanced attack ranked second nationally. 

Elarbee has previous SEC experience as well. He was extremely productive at Missouri, working alongside Heupel before coming to UCF. Elarbee took over an offensive line unit in 2016 that returned no starters, and by the end of the 2017 season, they were one of the most productive units in America. 

According to his bio, Elarbee’s unit at Missouri produced at an extremely high level following his development and instruction: “at Mizzou  (Elarbee) helped the Tigers to 2017 national ranks of No. 7 in total offense, No. 7 in sacks allowed, No. 10 in scoring offense, No. 14 in passing offense, No. 21 in first downs, No. 23 in red zone offense and No. 35 in rushing offense. Elarbee took over a Tiger offensive line in 2016 that had no returning starters and molded that group into one of the top lines in the nation. In 2016, Missouri was No. 13 in total offense, No. 20 in passing offense, No. 38 in rushing offense and No. 48 in scoring offense after the Tigers were no higher than No. 113 in those categories the year before. His 2016 unit led the nation in fewest tackles-for-loss allowed and were No. 16 in fewest sacks allowed.”

According to an Orlando Sentinel report, Elarbee makes $425,000 annually as the offensive line coach and assistant head coach at UCF. He will likely see a pay raise in Knoxville, and could carry a similar title. 

If everything goes through, and Elarbee does in fact end up in Knoxville, he would be inheriting a talented offensive line that features two five-stars in Cade Mays, a handful of four-stars, and some promising young talent in guys like Amari McNeil, Javontez Spraggins, and William Parker. 

Featured Image via Detroit News