{"id":745093,"date":"2026-02-11T16:01:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T16:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/745093\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T16:01:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T16:01:17","slug":"tennessee-football-coach-takes-jobs-with-rams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/745093\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennessee football coach takes jobs with Rams"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tennessee football<\/a> cornerbacks coach Michael Hunter<\/a> is leaving for the NFL, sending coach Josh Heupel <\/a>and defensive coordinator Jim Knowles<\/a> into a coaching search.<\/p>\n

Sources have confirmed to Volquest that Hunter is taking an assistant defensive backs job with the Los Angeles Rams<\/a>. Hunter\u2019s departure was first reported by Matt Zenitz.<\/p>\n

Hunter was hired away from Ohio State last month to be reunited with Knowles at Tennessee. The two were first together at Oklahoma State before working together at Ohio State.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Co-defensive coordinator Anthony Poindexter<\/a> continues to be in charge of the entire Tennessee secondary.<\/p>\n

Prior to starting his coaching career, Hunter spent multiple seasons in the NFL after being a standout defensive back at Indiana.<\/p>\n

Hunter signed with the New York Giants as an undrafted free agent in 2016. Following that season, he spent time with the New York Jets, Denver Broncos, Buffalo Bills, Houston Texans, Kansas City Chiefs, and one final stint with the Giants in 2019.<\/p>\n

As a coach, Hunter has drawn praise for his work with cornerbacks as well as nickel backs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a very hands-on coach,\u201d Ohio State senior\u00a0Davison Igbinosun<\/a>\u00a0told Volquest. \u201cHe will pour into you in his off time. He gives me feedback on and off the practice field. If I have a good or bad rep he tells me about it. He watches film with me before and after practice. He pours into his players tremendously.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned so much from him, from my sophomore to junior year. He came to Ohio State heading into my junior year. He completely changed my whole press technique and perfected it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Soon to be NFL first round pick Caleb Downs<\/a> credits Hunter\u2019s relatability as a big key to his success.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe relates to his players at a high level,\u201d Downs told Volquest last month. \u201cHe played college ball. He played NFL ball, so he really knows the game. He\u2019s able to articulate that to his players and at the end of the day you know that the person who is coaching you has done it before. They aren\u2019t just telling you stuff that they learned from a book. They have really experienced everything they are trying to teach you. I think that\u2019s what makes him special.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tennessee football cornerbacks coach Michael Hunter is leaving for the NFL, sending coach Josh Heupel and defensive coordinator…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":745094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,6,1788,1209],"class_list":{"0":"post-745093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-regwall","11":"tag-tennessee-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116052838536584808","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}