Tennessee football is parting ways with secondary coach Willie Martinez, 247sports Matt Zenitz first reported Thursday. Martinez spent the last five years on Josh Heupel’s staff as the secondary coach. Tennessee moving on from Martinez is the latest defensive staff change for the Vols’ this offseason.
Before this offseason, Josh Heupel had not fired a single coach on his staff during his tenure at Tennessee. But Heupel has now moved on from defensive coordinator Tim Banks and Martinez. The veteran SEC assistant still had one year remaining on his contract.
While Martinez held the secondary coach title, he mostly coached the cornerbacks while Banks coached the safeties. Tennessee’s cornerbacks had been good over the last two years. Jermod McCoy and Rickey Gibson were breakout stars as true sophomores in 2024.
They both returned in 2025 but combined to play just 19 snaps. McCoy tore his ACL over the offseason and never played during the season. Gibson suffered an upper body injury in the season-opener against Syracuse and never returned to the field.
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Tennessee’s corners took an obvious step back but still were not terrible.Colorado transfer Colton Hood earned All-SEC honors while true freshman Ty Redmond overcame some early season struggles to be a solid starter.
Even though the cornerbacks were solid, Tennessee’s defense struggled badly leading to Banks’ termination and the changes on the defensive staff. The Vols’ pass defense ranked 113th nationally in 2025, allowing 244.8 yards per game. The issues were at all three levels of the defense.
Martinez had spent the previous five years on staff at Tennessee. He was also Tennessee’s secondary coach from 2013-16 under former head coach Butch Jones.
It’s not immediately clear who will replace Martinez. However, Tennessee has been connected to Anthony Poindexter ever since hiring Jim Knowles as defensive coordinator. Poindexter has spent the last five years as Penn State’s co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach.
It does not appear that Matt Campbell is going to retain Poindexter on his inaugural staff at Penn State. Poindexter worked with Knowles last year in Happy Valley.