For the 2nd time in 2 years, University of Tennessee head coach Matt Kredich has received a contract extension through the 2025-2026 season.
In the summer of 2019, when there were several big college jobs open, Kredich received a new 5-year extension that had a base salary exceeding $1 million. Two years into that deal, it has been extended for two more seasons, which will keep Kredich in Knoxville for at least another 5 years.
Update: Kredich’s extension will carry a base salary of $217,000 per year, which is the same as the final years of his original contract.
Kredich just completed his 16th season at the University of Tennessee as the head coach of the women’s program, plus the last 9 years as the head coach of the combined team.
The Volunteers are still looking to fill a crucial role on their coaching staff left open when Lance Asti stepped down at the end of April to focus on opportunities outside of swimming. Asti focused primarily on the men’s program, leaving Kredich to place more of his energy on the women’s program. Tennessee has yet to announce a hire to fill Asti’s spot on the roster.
The Tennessee women finished 5th out of 12 teams at the 2021 SEC Championship meet a season after winnning the conference title. The Tennessee men placed 3rd out of 10 teams in 2021, which was a three-spot jump from the year prior. The 3rd-place finish matched their best finish since a runner-up result in 2001.
Matt Kredich‘s Awards & Honors
- 2019 Pan American Games Team USA Head Coach – Men
- 2015 Pan American Games Team USA Head Coach – Women
- 2013 World University Games Head Coach – Women
- 2013 SwimSwam National College Coach of the Year
- 2013 CSCAA National Collegiate and Scholastic Swimming Trophy
- 2012 SEC Women’s Coach of the Year
- 2008 SEC Women’s Coach of the Year
- 2005 Atlantic-10 Coach of the Year
- 2004 Atlantic-10 Coach of the Year
- 2003 Atlantic-10 Coach of the Year
- 2002 Atlantic-10 Coach of the Year
In addition to being a good coach, from the lil bit Ive communicated with it he seems like a genuinely nice guy as well. Well deserved. Not sure why everyone is being downvoted to hell, but swimswam do what swimswam do
whats with the downvotes? something the rest of us don’t know?
Well, the Guerra downvotes are just because it’s Guerra. Then there’s the fact that the only successful coach who never gets downvoted is Eddie, but if he were 50 and not 110, he’d get downvoted nowadays, too. Then, of course, there’s some anonymous swimmer who got kicked off the team or cut who will come forward to say what a miserable coach Matt is. Along with Holloway and Albiero, he’s one of the few coaches who’s managed to get the most out of a combined team. Helping Erika make the Olympic Team wasn’t too shabby either. Love hearing him talk about elastic power.
yeah same here. I’ve been very impressed with his incorporation of advancing training techniques both and out of the water. I feel like he has a great relationship with his swimmers as well.
Agree with your sentiments but TN men and women severely underperformed this year at SeC/ncaa/Trials.
I think Matt is an above average coach, but there are better. I’m also not sure he and his staff are as well liked as is portrayed.
18 swimmers made OT cuts. What other teams beat that (Cal, UT, anyone else?, but neither a combined program)? How many coaches got a swimmer an individual spot on the Olympic team? So name those coaches who did both with a combined program, and we’ll talk about “above average.” Who cares about conference and SECs in an Olympic year?
This wouldn’t be obvious to an outsider, but Tennessee is essentially running separate programs. That was part of his 2019 contract agreement to not leave and take the Stanford job. Kredich is effectively running the women’s program as a women’s squad, and Lance Asti was running the men’s program as a men’s squad.
Clever workaround to get extra assistant coaches.
So I’m sure he had a little more responsibiliity than a typical separate-gender program…but not the full responsibility of a normal combined geneder head coach. Also, way more assistants than a true split-gender program. Best of both worlds. Not sure why more programs with the money to do so don’t structure that way.
So in other words, he’s not only a good coach but an organizational and negotiating genius. I don’t think Lou Saban actually coaches the offensive linemen, or the quarterbacks. or the secondary, and his team underperformed in 2020, so I guess he’s not a great coach.
I really don’t understand the shade people throw at head coaches, “not coaching a specific athlete or group.” The job of the HC is holistic program over site. This includes hiring good assistants and letting them coach.
The fact that a growing number of combined programs are using a model where the HC doesn’t even have a main training group is probably a really healthy thing, in terms of organizational structure. Coaching 60-70 athletes, recruiting, administrative tasks, fundraising, etc., is not a one person job.
The men’s team has been overlooked for years. HC focused on women’s.
Lol. 18 including wave 1 correct? Dismiss NCAA’s and SEC’s, along w a badly underperforming men’s team bc it dosen’t fit your criteria for success? Those meets cover the majority of the team, not just one swimmer who made the Olympic team. What about Hannis/Deloof and the others we dont speak of? His team had many poor performances throughout the year and they were highly touted by this site to be contenders for SEC/NCAA titles.
From other top-half programs in the SEC:
Georgia had 25 (combined program)
Alabama had 16 (combined program)
A&M had 18 (separate programs)
Florida had 25 (was separate last season, combined next season)
Missouri had 12 compete (combined program)
Kentucky had 9 compete (combined programs)
Other high level combined programs:
Virginia Tech had 8 at Wave II (they have lots of internationals going to the Olympics – teams with heavy international rosters will have their US Trials numbers skewed)
Virginia is claiming 55 current, former, and future Cavaliers. Probably not an apples-to-apples comparison versus some of the other numbers, but I don’t care enough to bear down on that detail.
Data is based on… Read more »
Congratulations to Coach Kredich and the Tennessee Vols
Wouldn’t want anyone else! Congrats and well deserved!
This man is light years ahead of virtually all coaches worldwide. He is an out of the box thinker who exudes intelligence, coaching virtuosity and elitism. Other coaches and certainly athletes should hang on every word he speaks.
lol lightyears ahead?
Light years ahead with a trash men’s team?
My bad the results from Olympics first session suggest something wrong with my original statement – Houlie and the other male Bulgarian breastroker TERRIBLE, Tess in 400 IM added 7 seconds – TERRIBLE. Well TENN training is still amazing in sc pool.
Terrific guy! Congratulations!
Just a matter of time till he leverages this into a bigtime masters coaching gig
Congrats to Matt. Well earned and deserved!