Gridiron Now — As rumors fly as to what did or didn’t happen during the Tennessee athletic director search, here are a couple of things we have been told.
* Tennessee’s AD search committee did interview John Currie, though not all members of the committee were there.
* New UT chancellor Beverly Davenport also interviewed Currie, flying to Kansas to do so.
* Phillip Fulmer moved his scheduled search committee interview from this Friday to this past Sunday.
* Fulmer got a call from a search committee member Monday morning, leading Fulmer to believe he had the job.
* Davenport didn’t want Fulmer because he didn’t have AD experience; she wanted someone with experience from a Power Five Conference.
* The search committee member that pushed for Currie was Jimmy Haslam.
* The search committee recommended Currie to Davenport, although the vote was not unanimous.
* Not all members of the search committee were aware that Currie was instrumental in having Fulmer fired in 2008 and didn’t know Currie and Fulmer have a strained relationship.
* Currie reached out to Fulmer through a phone message but Fulmer has not yet responded.
* One reason Fulmer pushed for the AD job is he didn’t want Currie to get it.
* Fulmer might have been the only candidate interviewed by both the search firm, Turnkey, and the UT search committee. UT Chattanooga AD David Blackburn interviewed with Turnkey the same day as Fulmer but wasn’t interviewed by the UT search committee.
Since the addition of Outkick the Coverage the University of Tennessee has been well represented in our audience, and with Clay Travis speaking on campus soon this story caught our eye.
John Currie and Phillip Fulmer have bad blood between them. So much so, that Fulmer wanted to get the AD job out of spite. Can you imagine what level of disdain you would need for another human being to pursue a full-time career just so the other person didn't get it? I guess that's what happens when you are instrumental in getting someone else fired.
For those who are interested in the entire story, the link can be found here: http://gridironnow.com/inside-story-tennessee-hiring-john-currie/