Tennessee strength and conditioning coach Dave Lawson leads a drill during their first day of practice in pads at their indoor practice field Thursday, Mar. 14, 2013. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL)

By Dustin Dopirak of the Knoxville News Sentinel

Tennessee athletics strength and conditioning director Dave Lawson is no longer with the program, athletic department spokesman Ryan Robinson said Friday.

Robinson would not characterize the departure as either a firing or a mutual parting of ways, but said that Lawson had "philosophical differences" with the Tennessee football coaching staff.

Tennessee coach Butch Jones announced at his pre-spring press conference in March that Lawson was in charge of the overall athletic department strength and conditioning program but that associate director of strength and conditioning Mike Szerszen was working with the football team "day-to-day." Jones called Lawson "a key member of our staff."

Attempts to reach Lawson on Friday were unsuccessful.

Lawson had been working with Jones since 2007 when he joined the staff at Central Michigan. He followed Jones to Cincinnati in 2010 and Tennessee in 2013. However, Lawson had not been working with the football program since mid-January, though he was overseeing all strength and conditioning in the athletic department.

Robinson said Lawson will continue to be paid through the duration of his contract through February, which will total $200,000, but his salary will be mitigated if he gets another job.

Szerszen, the associate director of strength and conditioning, has been working with the football program since mid-January, and he will maintain that position. According to the News Sentinel database, last updated in July, Szerszen was making $66,000 per year.

Szerszen has been with Jones since joining his staff at Cincinnati in 2011. He was the director of Eastern Michigan from 2007-09 and worked under Lawson at Eastern Michigan from 2002-06.

Robinson said Tennessee is not currently looking to hire anyone to fill Lawson's position as director.

Lawson's first collegiate job was as an assistant at his alma mater West Virginia Tech after graduating in 1992. Two years later he was grad assistant for strength and conditioning at West Virginia. Lawson was promoted the following year to assistant strength and conditioning coach and held that position until 2001 when he was hired by Eastern Michigan as head strength and conditioning coach through 2006.