The Tennessee Volunteers special teams and outside linebackers coach Mike Ekeler is leaving for Nebraska.

The Tennessee Volunteers special teams and outside linebackers coach Mike Ekeler is leaving for Nebraska.

While the Tennessee Volunteers did lose some key pieces to both the NFL draft and the transfer portal this offseason, they held onto the majority of their coaching staff. On Monday though, it was annoucned that special teams and outside linebackers coach Mike Ekeler was leaving the program to go coach with Matt Rhule at Nebraska. Initial reports are that he will hold the special teams role there.

Ekeler was born in Nebraska and had a previous coaching stint at Nebraska from 2009-2010 where he was the linebackers coach. Ekeler has had quite a few stops over his coaching career at places like USC coaching linebacker, Georgia coaching linebackers, North Texas as the defensive coordinator and then worked his way to Tennessee where he joined the staff when Josh Heupel was first hired and has been in Knoxville ever since.

Ekeler reunited with Heupel as the two served as graduate assistants together at Oklahoma in 2004. Both of Ekeler’s Norman years saw the Sooners reach the BCS National Championship Game.

Perhaps no special teams unit in the country made as significant a jump as Tennessee’s under the direction of Ekeler in 2021. The Volunteers finished in the FBS top 20 in five team categories, including blocked punts (2 – 17th), kickoff return average (25.41 – 15th), net punting (42.08 – 19th), punt return defense (2.0 – fifth) and punt return average (11.83 – 16th). Tennessee either led the SEC or ranked in the league’s top three in punt return defense (first), punt return average (first), net punting (second) and kickoff return average (third).

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