Incoming Univ. of Tennessee AD John Currie is a hire who "checked two key boxes as someone with ties to Tennessee and experience as a power-conference athletics director," according to Patrick Brown of the Chattanooga TIMES FREE PRESS. While many national pundits "praised Tennessee for hiring Currie, fans mostly reacted with disappointment after clamoring for months" for either UT-Chattanooga Vice Chancellor & AD David Blackburn or former UT football coach Phillip Fulmer, who "pursued the job nearly eight years after his firing." Currie worked at UT from '97-98 and '00-09 and was "involved in renovation plans for both Neyland Stadium and Thompson-Boling Arena, the construction of the Pratt Pavilion basketball practice facility and the implementation of a new football season-ticket sales plan for students" in '08. Currie comes back to UT after spending eight years as Kansas State AD, where he "oversaw a financial turnaround as the department operated with a budget surplus in each of the past seven years and increased its budget" from $44M to $73M. K-State spent $100M-plus in "football stadium renovations and a basketball practice facility" (Chattanooga TIMES FREE PRESS, 3/1). In Knoxville, Rhiannon Potkey in a front-page piece notes UT "will formally introduce Currie" during a press conference tomorrow. UT "did not release contract terms," but Currie was earning $775,000 annually at K-State. UT hired Turnkey Sports & Entertainment to "conduct the AD search at a cost of $75,000, plus expenses." Turnkey Senior Exec Dir Gene DeFilippo, a former Boston College AD, "headed the search" (Knoxville NEWS SENTINEL, 3/1). In Topeka, Ken Corbitt notes Currie "had been linked to a handful of positions in recent years, most recently at Arizona," which over the weekend hired Central Michigan's Dan Heeke for its vacancy. The UT announcement yesterday "was a quick move." North Carolina AD Bubba Cunningham "was a front-runner for the job but withdrew from consideration on Sunday," which is when Currie "entered the picture" (TOPEKA CAPITAL-JOURNAL, 3/1).
GOING AGAINST THE POPULAR VOTE: In Knoxville, Mike Strange writes the Currie hire "comes largely out of the blue." New UT Chancellor Beverly Davenport, who has been on the job just two weeks, "didn't hire the Tennessee guy ... that the majority expected and had expressed a preference for" in Fulmer or Blackburn. Although the process of replacing outgoing AD Dave Hart has "gone on for months, we haven't heard much about Currie." Blackburn, and later Fulmer, were "obvious candidates and thus obvious talking points." They are "well-known UT grads who wanted the job." Currie "won't be the most popular choice Davenport could have made," but the long run is "what really matters" (Knoxville NEWS SENTINEL, 3/1).
WHAT'S NEXT FOR K-STATE? K-State named Exec Associate AD Laird Veatch acting AD (MANHATTAN MERCURY, 3/1). In Lubbock, Don Williams wonders if K-State could "coax back" Texas Tech AD Kirby Hocutt to Manhattan to replace Currie. But Willaims writes he is "not sure Kansas State can afford him, and not sure Hocutt can afford to make the move." A source said that Hocutt in the past month has "turned down the opportunity to interview for two other power-five conference jobs." Also, as Chair of the CFP Selection Committee, Hocutt is as "high-profile as ever, and Tech made a couple of pre-emptive strikes to dissuade suitors." Hocutt’s deal at Texas Tech is for seven years and $7.525M, and "appears to put him among the top dozen or so highest paid ADs in the nation." Should he "leave for another job, he owes Tech a lump-sum buyout of $750,000 within 60 days" (LUBBOCK AVALANCHE-JOURNAL, 3/1).
