KC Chiefs news: LB coach Matt House spurns Tennessee to stay with team
By Matt Conner
The Kansas City Chiefs could have lost another positional coach this offseason with word that the University of Tennessee was ready to hire Matt House to be their defensive coordinator. Instead, the Chiefs linebackers coach spurned their offer in order to remain with in K.C. for his third season.
According to ESPN reporter Dan Graziano, Tennessee extended the offer to House recently but found themselves back to the drawing board.
League sources tell me Chiefs LBs coach Matt House turned down an offer to be defensive coordinator at the University of Tennessee and elected instead to stay in Kansas City. As a well-regarded member of Andy Reid's staff, House could be on track for NFL coordinator job.
— Dan Graziano (@DanGrazianoESPN) February 15, 2021
Given that an offer was sent, it seems reasonable to believe that House at least entertained the idea enough to warrant that level of conversation. It makes sense given that coaches are keen to want to climb the ranks and take advantage of positions that open up a head coaching path for them. Tennessee would place him back in the SEC after serving as defensive coordinator at the University of Kentucky as recently as 2018.
At first, Kentucky wasn’t going to allow House to leave for the Chiefs, but eventually he was given permission to go, and Steve Spagnuolo hired him for his defensive staff when first joining the Chiefs in 2019—the team’s championship season. House was Kentucky’s inside linebackers coach as well, which allowed him to settle into his specialty on the Chiefs staff, too.
Since House arrived, Anthony Hitchens has shown improvement in his work in the heart of the Chiefs defense, and Ben Niemann has gone from a rookie free agent to regular contributor. It will be interesting to see how Willie Gay Jr. develops as last year’s second round choice. under House’s tutelage next season given that he’s clearly returning.
The Chiefs were likely expecting quite a bit more turnover in the coaching ranks given that offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy was the league’s hottest head coaching candidate and earned interviews with numerous teams. Instead, running backs coach Deland McCullough is the only one to leave the team for another job as he took a job back with the Indiana Hoosiers, which is where he spent several years as their RB coach as well.
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