UT owes defensive coordinator Tim Banks more than $4.5 million after Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel fired Banks on Dec. 8.
Banks will earn $2.15 million per year under a contract extension and raise through January 2025. The deal runs until January 32, 2028. UT must pay Banks the remaining value of his contract, which covers two full years and approximately seven weeks after Heupel elects to fire Banks.
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“I want to thank Tim for everything he has done for Tennessee over the past five seasons,” Hueppel said in a school news release. “He has helped restore our program to national prominence. More importantly, Tim is a great man of character and someone I respect the most. We wish Tim the best.”
After Banks was hired in February 2021, he earned $1.5 million per year during the final two years of his original contract. He made $1.3 million in his first season at UT and $1.4 million in his second.
He received a significant raise after becoming a Broyles Award finalist during the 2024 season, but Tennessee’s defensive performance plummeted in the 2025 season.
Banks’ contract contains standard mitigation language for Tennessee athletic contracts, requiring him to “make reasonable and diligent efforts as soon as practicable after termination of the contract to obtain another similar position of employment or compensated services to which the coach is able to obtain based on his skills and experience.” Such employment would reduce the amount Tennessee owes Banks for the acquisition.
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Banks is the first assistant coach Heupel has fired during his tenure at UT, which begins with the 2021 season.
In 2024, Banks led a dominant Tennessee defense that allowed just 16.1 points per game, which was crucial to the Vols’ first trip to the College Football Playoff. UT’s defense dropped in 2025m, allowing at least 30 points in seven of eight SEC games. It ranks 92nd nationally in scoring defense (28.8 ppg) and 116th nationally in pass defense (248.8 ppg).
Linebackers coach William Inge will serve as interim defensive coordinator when No. 23 Tennessee (8-4) takes on Illinois (8-4) in the Music City Bowl on Dec. 30 (5:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) in Nashville. Inge previously served as defensive coordinator or secondary defensive coordinator at Northern Iowa (2004), Buffalo State (2010-11), Indiana (2013-15), Fresno State (2020-21) and Washington State (2022-23).
Knox News reporter Adam Sparks contributed to this report
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Mike Wilson Covering University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at michael.wilson@knoxnews.com and follow him on X @Author: Mike Wilson. If you like Mike’s coverage, Consider a digital subscription This will allow you to access everything.
This article originally appeared in the Knoxville News-Sentinel: Tim Banks buyout, contracts, Tennessee football debt more than $4.5M