Aaron Ausmus has resigned from his job as North Texas’ football strength and conditioning coach and will join the staff at Tennessee in a similar capacity, UNT head coach Todd Dodge confirmed Thursday morning.

Aaron Ausmus

Ausmus was a two-time All-American in the shot put at Tennessee and will return to his alma mater after spending just a few months on UNT’s staff. He became UNT’s first strength and conditioning coach assigned solely to the football program in January.

He will start at Tennessee on Monday.

“There is no doubt Aaron had a positive impact on our team,” Dodge said. “We interviewed five or six candidates for the job and he stood out. Our kids will be disappointed because Aaron is a good coach, but I have been lining up the next guy. We will move as quickly as possible.”

Ausmus came to UNT from Ole Miss, where he was the head football strength and conditioning coach. He also worked at Idaho and USC.

Ausmus began his coaching career as a part-time strength and conditioning coach at Tennessee.

Ed Orgeron was the head coach at Ole Miss when Ausmus was at the school and is now an assistant coach at Tennessee. Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin worked with Ausmus while he was an assistant coach at USC.

Tennessee recently reached an agreement with former head football strength and conditioning coach Mark Smith to pay out the remainder of his contract.

UNT head strength coach Chris Seroka and assistant strength coach Ricky Lefebvre will run the Mean Green’s summer strength and conditioning program until Dodge gets a new coach in place.

Lefebvre worked with several UNT players at the Darrell R. Dickey Practice Facility on Thursday afternoon.

“We interviewed several guys when we hired Aaron and he is another source we can use in the industry,” Dodge said. “He is in that USC lineage. We are visiting with some of those guys right now.”

While the timing isn’t ideal for UNT, the team does have just one week of training left before taking a week off for the Fourth of July. Dodge also expressed confidence that he can land another quality coach, despite the fact most college staffs have been set with the season rapidly approaching.

“I am excited about the type of guys who are out there,” Dodge said. “College football is interesting. There are a lot of coaches out there without jobs. That is why we were able to land a guy like Aaron. There are guys out there like that now.”

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com  .