Tennessee has its head coach. It’s not Clemson’s Tony Elliott

Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott is staying put.

Tennessee is hiring Josh Heupel as its next head coach according to multiple reports, including one from Yahoo! Sports. Heupel comes to Tennessee from UCF.

Elliott was very much in the mix for the Tennessee job, a source told The State. However, ultimately he is remaining with the Tigers.

That is obviously very good news for Clemson.

Elliott has been on staff at Clemson since 2011. He has served as the Tigers’ play caller since 2015. The Tigers have reached the College Football Playoff in each of Elliott’s six seasons as offensive coordinator, winning a pair of national titles.

This story was originally published January 27, 2021 at 8:46 AM with the headline "Tennessee has its head coach. It’s not Clemson’s Tony Elliott."

Matt Connolly

The State

Matt Connolly is the Clemson University sports beat writer and covers college athletics for The State newspaper and TheState.com. Connolly graduated from USC Upstate in Spartanburg in 2011 and previously worked for The (Spartanburg) Herald Journal covering University of South Carolina athletics. He has been with The State since 2015. Connolly received an APSE top 10 award for beat reporting for his coverage of Clemson in 2019. He has also received several SCPA awards, including top sports feature in 2019. Support my work with a digital subscription