WVLT is reporting that Tennessee athletics director John Currie has been fired.
Currie was hired only eight months ago and had gained not insignificant amounts of goodwill by bringing back the Lady Vols logo and making a move on head football coach Butch Jones in the middle of a historically bad season. All of that was undone in a matter of weeks, however, with Currie’s handling of the search for a new football coach, which has featured a long series of missteps that has the various factions of Tennessee stakeholders at odds with one another.
Currie reportedly met with Chancellor Beverly Davenport this morning and learned of his fate during that meeting. No word yet on who will replace Currie, either permanently or temporarily for the purpose of concluding the coaching search.
[UPDATE] VolQuest is reporting that Phillip Fulmer has been more involved in the coaching search since last Sunday and that he’ll be assuming a greater role going forward.
Spurrier had the right idea – hire Tee Martin. Steve Spurrier for AD!!!
(or Fulmer)
Now I hear that Fulmer sabotaged the hiring process to get him fired and replace Currie as AD..
Honestly I don’t know what to believe anymore. I do know that we’ll probably never get out of this rut if Beverly and Haslam are around.
So close to getting Leach, and then we’re right back in the dumpster fire.
Hello darkness my old friend…
Wait, it is so unlike Fulmer to stab someone in the back to get a job that he wants
I’m done. We’re close to actually landing a coach and then they fire Currie? Really? This is the best timing? Great googly-moogly.
It is the best timing… If the people upstairs don’t want Leach because of some stupid fear because he sued Texas Tech for wrongful termination.. Unless they plan on firing our next coach without cause what’s the issue?
OK, OK. I’ll do the athletic director’s job for $1.0M signing bonus and a $5.5M severance.
Send me the contract.
Seriously, though, it’s pretty impressive to get paid $5.5M to go away after…
A) Only being on the job for 8 months, and
B) Completely botching your primary responsibility
I’m in the wrong line of work.
Davenport’s having a conference at 4 P.M. EST about the firing. More waiting and uncertainty.
I don’t know how much more of this I can take. Seriously.
Dumpster fire meet Train wreck. Train wreck meet Dumpster fire. Truly we a gif of a train hitting a blazing dumpster.
Current state of Tennessee coaching search. I sympathize with Hobbes right now.
UT
I take that back. This is more apt
I know! I said that I was done but I keep checking the news. It’s like the fascination of watching a disaster. You know it isn’t going to turn out well but you have to watch.
“UT booster Jim Haslam (brother of Tenn Gov) , who pushed for John Currie to get the AD job, is trying to get Reid Sigmon into the Interim AD role…..He worked under Currie at UT & KST and also worked for Browns where Haslam is owner….”
This just keeps getting worse. Haslam just keeps putting people he wants in.
“Jimmy Haslam in charge of 3 things 1. Browns: 1-26 2. Tennessee coaching search 3. Flying J: Under federal investigation #commontheme ”
Couldn’t agree more..
I think we are witnessing a war between the Haslam faction and the ex-players with the backing of a larger but less influential faction of Tennessee boosters. Unfortunately we’re all on the outside looking in on a situation occurring behind closed doors with the only outspoken sources for much of the National media being those in the Currie/Haslam faction. I think Mike Leach would be a solid hire too, but don’t forget this only came after being rejected by two absolutely horrendous candidates. And while even the blind squirrel does occasionally find a nut that doesn’t mean the blind squirrel… Read more »
Heh.
Well isn’t this fun.
On a completely unrelated note, I’m curious if you guys have the ability to make new comments be highlighted, or marked on the front page. It was a nice feature before and is useful, especially in times like these with new things constantly popping up
I haven’t figured out how to do that, but I’ll look some more, because you’re right, we’re hitting a stage where that would be really useful. For now, inside a story, you can sort by newest. It’s a link at the top of the comment thread.
Also, the Site Wide Activity link on the nav bar comes in handy sometimes.
THANK YOU! That makes a big difference for me and I didn’t even know it existed.
Heh. Funny thing is, I’m still finding new stuff, too.
Lord have mercy on our poor Vol souls… this is getting insane. Wonder what the players are thinking?