Tennessee has hired Penn State co-defensive coordinator Tim Banks as its new defensive coordinator, the school announced Monday.
Banks, 49, had spent the past five seasons at Penn State, where he also coached the Nittany Lions' safeties. Before that, he was the co-defensive coordinator at Illinois, the co-defensive coordinator at Cincinnati and the defensive coordinator at Central Michigan, which is his alma mater.
This marks Banks' first coaching stint in the SEC, although he was an assistant at Memphis in 2001 and 2002. While at Cincinnati, Banks was nominated for the Frank Broyles Award in 2011 as the top assistant coach in college football.