Wilcox triples pay in move to Vols

Wilcox was named the defensive coordinator at Tennessee on Wednesday. He spent four years as the defensive coordinator at Boise State.
“Yeah, the pressures are extraordinary and all that,” he said from Knoxville, Tenn., “but you don’t want to live your life saying coulda, shoulda, woulda. I’m excited about the place. I think you can recruit here. Obviously it is a tough conference. Sometimes you’ve got to push yourself a little bit and you’ve got to jump out of your comfort zone and that’s what I did.”
Wilcox, who came to Boise State with no coordinator experience, said he liked the idea of a new challenge.
“My learning curve at Boise for the first three years was vertical and then it starts to kind of flatten out a little bit and you’re still learning but it’s a different pace,” he said. “This will definitely push my learning curve again. … Boise is an unbelievable place. I love it there and will always love Boise State. I felt like this was something — I wanted to try it and go for it.”
Wilcox said he doesn’t expect his departure to affect the Broncos, who hired defensive line coach Pete Kwiatkowski to replace him. Kwiatkowski helped Wilcox learn the ropes as a coordinator in 2006.
“The only guy they cannot lose is (coach Chris Petersen),” Wilcox said. “Boise State is going to win. The players and the assistant coaches and all that can change.”
Wilcox told the Broncos players about his decision Tuesday morning after their conditioning session. He choked up quickly.
“You kind of put your heart and soul into something like that and to move on — that’s a difficult, difficult thing,” he said.
Wilcox is expected to receive a three-year contract worth about $650,000 per year. He was making $215,000 at Boise State.