Josh Heupel is promoting Evan Crabtree as Tennessee football’s new special teams coordinator and is adding longtime NFL assistant John Bonamego as an assistant special teams coach, Volquest’s Austin Price first reported and a source confirmed to RTI on Tuesday afternoon.

Crabtree is replacing former Tennessee special teams coordinator Mike Ekeler who left the Volunteer program earlier this month to serve in the same role at Nebraska.

The former Miami (Ohio) long snapper has been Tennessee’s assistant special teams coach each of the last three years where he’s had an active role coaching the Vols’ specialists. Prior to his time at Tennessee, Crabtree was a graduate assistant at his alma mater for two years before joining Heupel’s staff.

Crabtree appeared in 47 games during his five-year career at Miami (Ohio) as the Red Hawks long snapper.

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Bonamego comes to Knoxville with over 35 years coaching experience including 18 years in the NFL. During his stint as a NFL assistant coach, Bonamego served as a special teams coach/coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Green Bay Packers, New Orleans Saints, Miami Dolphins, Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Rams.

The 61-year old assistant spent multiple stints with the Jaguars, Saints and Lions. He last coached in the NFL during the 2021 season where he was a senior coaching assistant with the Rams.

Bonamego has a handful of stints coaching college football during his career. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Bonamego served as an assistant coach at Maine, Lehigh and Army. After spending 16 years in the NFL, the Pennsylvania native returned to his alma mater Central Michigan as the head coach.

Central Michigan went 22-29 during Bonamego’s four seasons as a head coach. They were solid, making a bowl game, his first three years before a disastrous 1-11 tenure in 2018 ended his time leading the Chippewas.

Bonamego spent the 2022 and 2023 seasons as an assistant special teams coach at Iowa State before telling ESPN he was retiring from coaching. But after just one year of coaching, Bonamego is returning to the sidelines with Josh Heupel and Tennessee football.