The wheels continue to come off at Tennessee while the Vols continue their search for a new football coach.
Friday, the university removed athletic director John Currie from the position and replaced him with former football coach Phil Fulmer in the wake of a botched coached search that came unhinged with the school rescinding a deal with Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano after a fan uprising last week. That was followed by by Mike Gundy of Oklahoma State, David Cutcliffe of Duke, Jeff Brohm of Purdue and Dave Doeren of North Carolina State all turning down the job. As you can imagine Currie’s base of support eroded quickly and fans were heard chanting “Fire Currie” at Wednesday’s basketball game. Former UT coach and Lane Kiffin, who now coaches at Florida Atlantic University, couldn’t resist trolling the his former employer on social media by posting a picture of Kim Jun Un in a Tennessee pullover with the caption that said he had turned the job down.
Currie, who fired Butch Jones on November 12 toward the end of a 4-8 season that included an 0-8 record in the SEC, decided not to use a search firm, that so far has proven to be a mistake, thought he had finally found his man Thursday when he met with Mike Leach of Washington State in California. The two agreed to terms. But before anything could be signed, Currie was recalled to Knoxville to discuss the situation and was fired Friday morning.
The Vols were initially hesitant to pursue Leach because Leach sued Texas Tech following his firing in 2009. Leach was dismissed after Adam James, the son of SMU star and ESPN analyst Craig James, claimed Leach mistreated him after the younger James suffered a concussion. The case was thrown out of court.
One person who did not want Leach was Fulmer, who some sources feel undercut Currie and was communicating with his own set of candidates without authority before this latest sequence of events. Fulmer wanted this job and he now has it.
Tennessee Chancellor Beverly Davenport said Fulmer, who won a national championship at Tennessee in 1998 and coached the Vols to a 152-52 record before be fired himself in 2008, would be a unifying force and signed him to a two-year contract worth $900,000 annually. Fulmer has said he has no interest in the job. He also says Tennessee has the resources to compete with anyone in the country. The Vols fan base initially thought they could get Jon Gruden, but he wasn’t leaving ESPN. Chip Kelly and Dan Mullen also would have been acceptable but they went to UCLA and Florida. When Matt Campbell of Iowa State turned them down, panic set in among Vol nation, who are finding out the hard way they are not the flavor of the month any more.
This school desperately needs someone, anyone who can succeed. They are looking for their fifth football coach in 11 years. It will be interesting to see whether Fulmer goes for one of his former quarterbacks, Tee Martin, who is the offensive coordinator at USC even though Martin has no head coaching experience.
No one in Knoxville wants sit through a repeat of the last season. Life at the bottom is no fun.
