For the Tennessee Volunteers, hiring the former Oregon Football Head Coach makes sense. Helfrich knows Butch Jones well. They faced each other on the football field when Helfrich was Head Coach. Helfich was fired following the 2016 season after a loss to Oregon State. A return to Offensive Coordinator position would be a return to his roots and where he had success with Oregon under Chip Kelly.
Mark Helfrich was the one who brought Marcus Mariota to Eugene. He helped engineer a run to a National Championship for Oregon Football in 2014. On Tuesday it was announced that Offensive Coordinator for Tennessee, Mike DeBord was leaving to become Head Coach at Indiana.