Currie out, Fulmer in as Tennessee athletic director

Former Tennessee Volunteers head coach Phillip Fulmer took over as athletic director after John Currie was placed on leave with pay, the university announced Friday.

Chancellor Beverly Davenport announced Fulmer’s appointment as acting athletic director, but sources told ESPN’s Chris Low that he will get a two-year contract for the job.

“Phillip Fulmer will begin serving as athletic director effective immediately,” Davenport said in a statement. “I have taken these steps in the best interest of the university.

“I am confident that Phillip understands the need to support our student-athletes and our commitment to excellence in all athletic programs. I appreciate his willingness to serve during this critical time. No one better understands the storied history of Vol athletics and its deep connection to alumni and fans, and I believe he will be a unifying presence for all of us committed to the university’s success.”

The whirlwind of events with Currie out as Tennessee AD after just eight months on the job and Fulmer in came after an embarrassing week in the school’s search for the next football coach.

The Volunteers are looking for their fourth football coach since Fulmer was forced out after the 2008 season.

“It has indeed been a difficult week,” Davenport said at a Friday afternoon news conference. “It has been a difficult road to get to where we are. This has not been an easy process.”

Fulmer coached the Volunteers from 1992 to 2008, going 152-52 overall and leading Tennessee to the 1998 national title during a 13-0 season. Fulmer, who was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2012, coached the Vols to back-to-back SEC titles in 1997 and 1998.

The 67-year-old Fulmer has been serving as a special adviser to University of Tennessee president Joseph DiPietro since June. The part-time position paid Fulmer $100,000 annually and was seen as a way to unite a fan base divided over whether he should have been chosen as athletic director when Currie was hired in April.

“I hope to be a stabilizing and unifying force through this just because we do have some gray hair and a lot of experience at this place,” Fulmer said at a press conference. “Sometimes it’s when you’re younger that you’ve screwed it up so bad that you figure it out later and you don’t make the same mistakes again.”

Fulmer immediately takes over the school’s coaching search after Currie’s disastrous struggles to find the next coach.

“Our football program has the history, the facilities, the tradition and the resources to play with anyone any time, and that’s what we’re going to do again,” Fulmer said.

The Volunteers placed the 46-year-old Currie on paid leave after a meeting between him and school officials, including Davenport, on Friday morning.

Currie flew back earlier Friday to Knoxville after interviewing Washington State coach Mike Leach on Thursday in Los Angeles.

Tennessee officials instructed Currie not to broker a deal with Leach or anybody else prior to returning to campus, according to ESPN.

Leach agreed to terms on a deal that would have made him the Volunteers’ next coach but before anything could be signed, Currie was called back to Knoxville, according to Sports Illustrated’s Andy Staples.

When word leaked Thursday night that Currie had met with Leach, it was mostly met with approval by fans on social media. But someone at Tennessee was displeased with Currie’s courtship of Leach, according to the SI report. Shortly after a draft of a memorandum of understanding was sent to Tennessee’s general counsel on Thursday, Currie was ordered to return to Knoxville.

Leach, 56, is 9-3 at Washington State this season, having reached at least eight wins in each of the past three seasons. He has a 38-27 mark in six seasons with the Cougars. Leach went 84-43 in 10 seasons at Texas Tech from 2000 to 2009 but was fired amid allegations that he mistreated a player.

Currie previously was the athletic director at Kansas State. His first major move as the Volunteers AD came on Nov. 12 when he fired fifth-year coach Butch Jones and took on the national search for a replacement.

Currie on Monday defended the coaching search and vetting of leading candidate Greg Schiano, a day after the Volunteers backed out of the hiring agreement following a public backlash and campus protests. The Vols reportedly had a deal in place with the Ohio State defensive coordinator on Sunday morning, but it fell through by the end of the day after the university heard from the fan base, state representatives and local business owners.

The outcry stemmed from Schiano’s time on the staff at Penn State in the early 1990s, with fans expressing outrage with his alleged connection to convicted child sexual abuser Jerry Sandusky. Schiano spent five seasons at Penn State, four as the defensive backs coach on the staff with Sandusky, who was defensive coordinator.

Testimony released in 2016 brought up Schiano’s name in the Sandusky trial. Former Penn State staffer Mike McQueary, from his 2015 deposition, said fellow assistant coach Tom Bradley told McQueary that Schiano was aware of a child sexual abuse incident by Sandusky.

Schiano, who coached under Joe Paterno at Penn State, has denied an allegation of his knowledge of child abuse by Sandusky. Bradley, defensive coordinator under recently fired UCLA coach Jim Mora, also denied having knowledge or witnessing any of Sandusky’s abuse.

Students gathered on Tennessee’s campus in Knoxville on Sunday to protest a potential Schiano hire once the news leaked. At a huge rock on campus where students often paint various messages, the words “Schiano covered up child rape at Penn State” appeared.

In his head-coaching search, Currie also had discussions with Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy, Duke’s David Cutcliffe, North Carolina State’s Dave Doeren, Purdue’s Jeff Brohm and Dan Mullen, who left Mississippi State to take Florida’s job.

Jones was fired the day after Tennessee lost 50-17 at Missouri to fall to 0-6 in Southeastern Conference play. The Volunteers then lost their final two games to finish 4-8 overall and 0-8 in the conference. Jones had a 34-27 record in five seasons at Tennessee.