I’m not going to lie. This Tennessee search has become must-see TV, or whatever the 21st Century digital equivalent is. A day after being spurned by the legendary Dave Doeren, five days after hiring and un-hiring Greg Schiano, Tennessee has …
Fired its athletic director. (According to Knoxville's WLVT, which really is must-see TV.)
To recap: Tennessee has made overtures to Dan Mullen, David Cutcliffe, Mike Gundy, Jeff Brochm, Kevin Sumlin and now Mike Leach, plus the aforementioned Doeren and Schiano, plus Jon Freakin’ Gruden – and still doesn’t have a coach. (It really hasn’t had one for about a decade, but that’s me being judgmental.) And now John Currie, the person charged with hiring that coach, has himself gotten the gate.
Currie was Tennessee’s AD for eight months. Even Lane Kiffin spent longer than that in Knoxville.
It’s believed Philip Fulmer, who once elbowed Johnny Majors aside to become head coach and was himself pushed out 14 years later, has been angling to become AD. Because, you know, Philip Fulmer has had so much experience being a big-time athletic director, as in, “none.”
Obvious question: Have I ever seen anything like this? Answer: No, because there has never BEEN anything like this. For the past couple of years, we’ve all assumed Butch Jones was the least competent person affiliated with the Tennessee football. It’s looking more and more like the ol’ Champion of Life wouldn’t have made that dubious podium.
That is so ridiculous that Webster’s just changed its definition of the word to, “See ‘Tennessee, Coach Search.’ ” But it is, I have to admit, as funny as all get-out.
