Football Announces Support Staff Hires

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee head football coach Jeremy Pruitt officially announced updates to multiple support staff positions on Thursday.

The Vols hired Andrew Warsaw to be the program's Director of Football Operations with former director of operations Todd Watson becoming the new Director of Programming for Football.

Warsaw joins the Tennessee staff after spending the last two seasons as the Assistant Athletic Director for Football Operations at Mississippi State, where he managed and balanced the program's annual eight figure operating budget and coordinated the daily and yearly football schedule.

Warsaw's other responsibilities included handling all phases of team travel and serving as the football program's liaison between the university, the athletic department and the Southeastern Conference. During his time at Mississippi State, Warsaw also played a major role in the planning and execution of the program's three bowl appearances (2017 TaxSlayer Bowl, 2019 Outback Bowl and 2019 Music City Bowl).

Prior to working at MSU, Warsaw spent one year as the Director of Game Operations for the National Football League. He coordinated team logistics and travel for international games as well as the Super Bowl. Warsaw also oversaw all gameday policies during the season and was based out of the league's New York headquarters.

Warsaw previously served as the Director of Football Operations at Purdue (2015-16), Arizona (2013-15), Fordham (2012-13) and the United States Merchant Marine Academy (2011-12).

Warsaw is joined in Knoxville by his wife, Ashley, and their three children: Aiden, Landon and Eli.

Also joining the Vol staff as an offensive quality control analyst is former Notre Dame and Memphis offensive coordinator Chip Long.

Long spent the last three seasons as the offensive coordinator and tight ends coach at Notre Dame (2017-19), where he helped lead the Fighting Irish to a 33-6 record in that span. The Birmingham, Alabama, native was a finalist for the 2018 Broyles Award, given annually to the nation's top assistant coach.

Under Long's guidance, the Irish ranked in the top 25 nationally in scoring offense in 2019 (14^th – 36.8 ppg) and 2017 (24th – 34.2 ppg). During Long's first season as offensive coordinator in 2017, Notre Dame ranked seventh nationally in rushing at 269.3 yards per game and set single-season school records in rushing yards (3,503) and yards per carry (6.3).

Long also helped develop Ian Book into one of the nation's premier quarterbacks in 2018. Book won his first nine career starts, becoming the first quarterback in program history to do so. In 2018, Book's 68.2 completion percentage set a new program record and ranked eighth in the country. Book threw for 2,628 yards and 19 touchdowns that season and was named a semifinalist for the Maxwell Award and the Davey O'Brien Award. He was also a finalist for the Manning Award.

During his lone season as the offensive coordinator and tight ends coach at Memphis in 2016, Long led one of the nation's most prolific offenses. The Tigers ranked in the top 20 nationally in passing offense (14^th – 304.4 ypg), scoring offense (16^th – 38.8 ppg), completion percentage (17^th – 63.5), passing efficiency (19^th – 152.53) and first downs gained (20^th - 303). Memphis was one of six FBS teams to rank in the top 20 in each of those offensive categories in 2016.

Long previously served as tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator at Arizona State (2012-15) and tight ends and fullbacks coach at Illinois (2010-11). In his four seasons at Arizona State, the Sun Devils scored 50 or more points in 14 games.

Long will be joined in Knoxville by his wife, Kari, and his two daughters, Lyla and Alyson.

Other support staff updates include defensive graduate assistant Nanumi Lolohea moving into a defensive quality control analyst role and football operations graduate assistant Nick Hardesty moving into a full-time operations assistant role.

University of Tennessee Athletics

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