Tennessee AD Dave Hart on Thursday announced his intentions to retire in '17, and the "public rush to appoint the next leader of the athletic department is already underway," according to Mike Strange of the Nashville TENNESSEAN. Reports on Thursday already had UT-Chattanooga Vice Chancellor & AD David Blackburn "emerging as the favorite," as he is a UT grad and "checks a lot of boxes" in what the school and fans want in Hart's successor. Over the last three years in Chattanooga, Blackburn has "received mostly favorable reviews" in what is his first AD job. Other candidates for the job could be former UT football coach Phillip Fulmer, Fox Sports analyst and UT grad Charles Davis, Kansas State AD John Currie, Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart and UT Exec Senior Associate AD Jon Gilbert (Nashville TENNESSEAN, 8/19).
CHECK, PLEASE: In Knoxville, Grant Ramey notes Hart came to UT in '11 and "put together a checklist" and has accomplished "nearly everything he set out to do." Hart said that the "timing was right to step down." Ramey notes "first and foremost" on Hart's initial checklist was "building a healthy football program." UT went 5-7 in his first year, and Hart now calls the program "healthy, vibrant." Hart also "helped stabilize Tennessee's athletic department financially, building its reserve back up" from less than $2M (Knoxville NEWS SENTINEL, 8/19). UT football coach Butch Jones: "Everything is about leaving the place better than the way it was when you came here. ... Dave Hart has made Tennessee athletics much, much better because he was a leader" (Knoxville NEWS SENTINEL, 8/19).
ACHY BREAKY HART: In Nashville, John Adams writes Hart's retirement was "inevitable." Once UT Chancellor Jimmy Cheek's resignation was announced in June, "you had to think the athletic director he hired would be the next to go." Neither Cheek nor Hart "endeared himself to the Tennessee fan base," and now, "one's replacement can hire the other's replacement." Adams: "Safe to say, the next chancellor won't hire an Alabama alum, as Hart was. Or an Alabama sports administrator, as Hart was." Some UT fans always "would have held that against Hart no matter what he accomplished." Adams: "That's the SEC for you. Where you went to school and where you worked last matters." But "non-conspiracy theorists will see him differently," as the "man who hired" Jones (Nashville TENNESSEAN, 8/19). In Kentucky, Mark Story writes it is "hard to imagine many major universities have gone through so much turnover in their most visible positions as Tennessee has in the past decade." The replacement for Hart "will be the third UT AD" since '10. Hart was a "polarizing figure on Rocky Top and his pending departure will not be lamented by many Tennessee backers." But Hart also "created some of his own difficulty by picking a completely unnecessary fight with women’s sports advocates at UT" (LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER, 8/19).
