When Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel promoted Levorn Harbin in February, it was the third time he moved an analyst to a full-time assistant on the primary staff.
Harbin was promoted from senior defensive analyst to to outside linebackers coach, replacing Mike Ekeler.
“It helps with the cultural aspect. If you work hard, you will get promoted. If you don’t, you won’t,” Harbin said Friday. “But Coach Heupel been great to me from start to finish, been great to my family. His wife been great to my wife and to my kids. So that’s been a selling point for us to stay here as long as we have. I don’t usually stay somewhere this long, so that’s been great for my family. If it weren’t for Coach Heupel, I wouldn’t still be here going into year five.”
Harbin, known around the Tennessee program as “Chop,” was first drawn to the Vols because his daughter had a chance to attend school at the University of Tennessee. It didn’t hurt that he had friends take a job on Heupel’s staff a month before him, but his daughter, who in now a student, always loved Tennessee.
Defensive line coach Rodney Garner worked with Harbin at Auburn and said it’s good to see people like Harbin get rewarded with an opportunity. Defensive coordinator Tim Banks felt the same way.
“Coach Chop has been a valuable asset for us since he has gotten here,” Banks said. “I know he gets a lot of accolades because of his recruiting, and rightfully so. But he does just as good a job with developing and working with the (defensive) front. He has kind of been an unsung hero around here for a long time, so I’m super excited he’s finally getting his just due.”
Harbin got his nickname when he was at Auburn. Everyone had a nickname, and his became “Chop,” which was short for pork chop.
Harbin has been a valuable recruiter for Tennessee, filling in at different times to do off-campus recruiting while assistants were unavailable. He was on the road recruiting in Ekeler’s place after Ekeler was hired by Nebraska.
When Harbin was asked about his style as a recruiter, he said he’s genuine.
“If you good to me, I’m good to you, and that’s the same way recruit,” Harbin said. “I don’t deviate with that. I don’t put on a different mask when it come to recruiting. We have hard conversations, sometimes, me and the parents and the kids, and that’s fine. I tell them that up front, but we always gonna be honest and upfront, from start to finish. That will always be consistent about me. I kind of gravitate to people that’s like that, and they gravitate to me.”
Garner said Harbin does a great job building relationships with recruits and he’s “relentless.”
“He builds trust and adds value in a thing that’s sort of getting lost in today’s new age of a different way of recruiting,” Garner said. “But he does just a great job of building those relationships, building that trust, and giving us an opportunity to have a chance to close on guys at the end.”
Cora Hall covers University of Tennessee women’s athletics. Email her at cora.hall@knoxnews.com and follow her on X @corahalll. If you enjoy Cora’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that allows you to access all of it.
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