Tennessee offensive coordinator Alex Golesh named finalist for Broyles Award
Tennessee offensive coordinator Alex Golesh has been named a finalist for the 2022 Frank Broyles award honoring college football’s top assistant coach.
Golesh is the first Tennessee assistant to be named a finalist since David Cutcliffe won the award in 1998.
Golesh has guided the Vols to the top spot offensively in 2022 as Tennessee leads the nation in scoring at 47.3 points a game. In 12 games the Vols have scored 75 touchdowns and kicked 15 field goals. On the year, the Vols have scored 568 points. In his first season as offensive coordinator on Rocky Top, Golesh’s unit scored 511 points. The Vols scored 50 points or more in 6 games this season including 56 Saturday night in a rainy win over Vanderbilt and 52 against Nick Saban and Alabama in an upset win on October 15th.
Tennessee is 3rd nationally in passing offense averaging 332 yards a game. They are fifth in yards per completion at 15.5 yards a completion. The three service academies and North Texas are in front of them. Army, Navy, and Air Force have a combined 130 completions. Tennessee has 271 completions.
Most talk about the passing game when it comes to Tennessee, but the Vols under Golesh and head coach Josh Heupel are a balanced attack. The Vols are 19th in rushing at 206 yards a game on the ground. It’s the second straight season that Tennessee has averaged over 200 yards a game on the ground.
The Vol offense is also improved in the red zone. A year ago they scored on 49 of 58 trips inside the 20 with 39 touchdowns. This season, the Vols inside the 20 have scored on 59 of 63 attempts and 50 have been touchdowns.
Tennessee’s offensive success this season has helped the Vols get to 10-2 record and a New Year’s six bowl game. The Vol appear to be heading to the Orange Bowl unless the are ahead of Alabama in Tuesday night’s college football playoff rankings.
Golesh’s success is also getting him on the head coaching radar screen. Golesh’s name has surfaced as a candidate at Cincinnati which came open over the weekend when Luke Fickell left the Bearcats for the head coaching job at Wisconsin.
Golesh was rewarded this past offseason with a $750,000 raise taking him to 1.2 million dollars after Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss pursued him.
The awards ceremony is on December 6th in Little Rock, Arkansas. The other four finalists for the award include Georgia offensive coordinator Todd Monken, Illinois defensive coordinator Ryan Walters, Michigan defensive coordinator Jesse Minter and TCU offensive coordinator Garret Riley.
