New Vols athletic director Phillip Fulmer is in New York for Peyton Manning's College Football Hall of Fame induction but the coaching search continues.
Our partners at govols247.com think it could be over by Thursday.
Here's who we think is on Fulmer's coaching board:
The Front-Runners
Mel Tucker, Georgia defensive coordinator
Tucker's SEC champion Georgia defense ranked in the top four nationally in points and yards allowed this season. He's coordinated defenses in the NFL for the Browns, Jaguars and Bears, and also served as Jacksonville's interim head coach for five games, going 2-3. Tucker has coached two seasons on Nick Saban's staff, one each with LSU and Alabama.
Former WBIR contributor John Brice said Tucker and Fulmer have talked at least twice this week about the head coaching position, and has emerged as one of the leading candidates to take the reins of Team 122.
Jeremy Pruitt, Alabama defensive coordinator
His Alabama defenses have led the nation in scoring defense in each of his two seasons as defensive coordinator in his second stint coaching under Nick Saban. He previously worked on Mark Richt's staff at Georgia and Jimbo Fisher's staff at FSU, where he earned a national championship ring. That 2013 Seminole defense also led the nation in scoring defense. He played college football at MTSU and Alabama.
Kevin Steele, Auburn defensive coordinator
Steele played linebacker at Tennessee in the late 1970s and then coached on Johnny Majors' staff with Fulmer in the early 1980s. His Auburn defenses have ranked in the top ten in scoring defense (fewest points allowed per game) in each of the last two seasons. He won a national championship as an assistant at Nebraska and has coached on the staffs of national champion head coaches Nick Saban, Les Miles and Dabo Swinney.
He was not present for Tuesday's Broyles Award presentation in Arkansas, reportedly interviewing with Fulmer in New York.
Steele was the head coach of Baylor from 1999-2002 and compiled a 9-36 record, going 1-31 in conference play.
On The Periphery
Tee Martin, USC offensive coordinator
Martin played quarterback for Fulmer at Tennessee, winning a national championship in 1998. USC has gone 31-5 with a Pac-12 championship and Rose Bowl win with Martin as its offensive coordinator. He's one of the top recruiters in the country, ranked number one in the nation by 247Sports for the 2016 recruiting cycle.
GoVols247 reported that Martin might be willing to come home to Rocky Top in a coordinator/assistant head coach role.
Brent Venables, Clemson defensive coordinator
Venables is known as a top recruiter and he's been around winning teams his whole career. The Kansas State grad has coached in five national championship games, winning two of them, and his teams have won ten or more games in a season 17 times in his 21 years as a full-time assistant coach.
Before joining Clemson, Venables coached at Oklahoma from 1999-2011. His defenses have consistently ranked near the top in the nation multiple times and he was named the 2015 Rivals Recruiter of the Year.
Les Miles, former LSU head coach
Miles was fired in 2016 after starting the season 2-2 with losses to ranked opponents, Wisconsin and Auburn. He won a national championship with the Tigers in 2007 and won ten or more games seven times in 12 seasons at LSU. His worst record in a full season was 8-5. Miles went 19-10 and 10-8 in the SEC in his final three seasons.
Chad Morris, SMU head coach
Morris is 14-22 in three seasons as the Mustangs head coach but has made progress every year, taking a team that went 1-11 before his arrival and going 2-10, then 5-7 and now 7-5 in year three. He coached high school football from 1994-2009, going 28-0 with two state titles in his final two seasons before becoming Tulsa's offensive coordinator. His Golden Hurricane offense ranked sixth in the country in scoring in 2010 and he jumped to install his offense at Dabo Swinney's Clemson. The Tigers went from 86th in the country in scoring before Morris' arrival to 23rd in his first season, winning an ACC Championship.