Is this part of Haslams plan to maintain control?

[05_never_again]

You do know she was the Chancellor not the athletic director, right? It wasnt her fault Currie screwed up. Haslams hired Currie. Haslams and Currie tried to hire Schiano. Everyone, the fans and other major boosters, were tired of the screwups. She did good in that situation. Cleaned up the mess. Aligned with the boosters that opposed the Haslam's and brought fulmer in. She was responsible for nothing that went off the rails. Nothing.

Davenport still shares in the blame. I don't know for sure, but I'm assuming the way it works is that people in power propose a name(s) and the Haslams say yea or nay. So if the names were Currie, Fulmer, John Doe 1, John Doe 2, Blackburn, etc., Haslam responds with "anyone but Fulmer or Blackburn." So Davenport still shares blame in picking Currie, who was probably worse than a John Doe 1 or 2 would have been. I highly doubt Haslam told Davenport that she had to hire Currie specifically; he's just one of many people Davenport talked to that Haslam would also be OK with.

However, you are right, she sided with boosters other than the Haslams and most of the athletic department by firing Currie and installing Fulmer as AD. That, along with her refusing to outsource those facilities management jobs, led to her own firing a few months later.

 

[GRN1926]

Davenport still shares in the blame. I don't know for sure, but I'm assuming the way it works is that people in power propose a name(s) and the Haslams say yea or nay. So if the names were Currie, Fulmer, John Doe 1, John Doe 2, Blackburn, etc., Haslam responds with "anyone but Fulmer or Blackburn." So Davenport still shares blame in picking Currie, who was probably worse than a John Doe 1 or 2 would have been. I highly doubt Haslam told Davenport that she had to hire Currie specifically; he's just one of many people Davenport talked to that Haslam would also be OK with.

However, you are right, she sided with boosters other than the Haslams and most of the athletic department by firing Currie and installing Fulmer as AD. That, along with her refusing to outsource those facilities management jobs, led to her own firing a few months later.

I'm not sure how much say she really had there. She is a new voice at a major university and a billionaire, and the biggest donor on the University roster, walks in the door and says "this is the guy we have chosen for AD, his name is Jon Currie." She going to fight the biggest booster on campus day 1?

Those things did get her fired which is another sign if the pettiness of the Haslams. We had a chancellor that was attempting to do what she sincerely thought was in the best interest of the university and she got canned for it, even though the majority agreed with her, because it wasnt exactly what the haslam's wanted. Davenport being fired, to me, was the final nail in the Haslams coffin and definitively proved what POS's they truly are.

 

[Henry Letham]

Nice copy/paste job. Aristotle, all of that is irrelevant because your theory has an incorrect assumption and is therefore invalid.

You claim that the Haslams wanted Phil the entire time. That is implausible for a variety of reasons, but for the sake of argument let's assume that it is true. This is the assumption you are making that is incorrect. I'm going out of my way to play devil's advocate here.

I'm assuming you followed the AD search after Hart stepped down. The two (and if memory serves, the only two) names for that job that got swirled around were Fulmer and Dave Blackburn. A sizable chunk of the fanbase seemed to want Fulmer, along with at least some boosters (think Thornton/Anderson). And, according to you, even the Haslams themselves wanted Phil. So how convenient! This time, the Haslams' and the fans'/other boosters interests are aligned, right?

If the Haslams, the fans, and the other boosters wanted Phil, there is no need for "Step One" as you describe above. Phil would have just gotten the job then. Why did a problem have to be created?

If you want to get on here and tell a cool-sounding conspiracy theory, the one that is consistent with your "facts" would need to be that pro-Fulmer forces, not the Haslams, installed Currie as a patsy so that it would blow up in the Haslams' faces and lead to a situation where Fulmer could be installed. There were also reports (Brett McMurphy) that Fulmer himself was sabotaging Currie's efforts to hire a coach post-Schiano. That's another angle you can take with your "facts." The one you are taking just makes no logical sense.

You are wrong, your facts are propaganda. Plain and simple. Also, Aristotle's philosophy sucks.

 

[05_never_again]

You are wrong, your facts are propaganda. Plain and simple.

How about you present some evidence that refutes what I'm saying then? There is absolutely nothing - nothing that has been reported, things that you can infer from said reporting, or things that you can infer from simply being familiar with Tennessee politics, that suggests Haslam and Fulmer are allies and that the Haslams wanted Fulmer the entire time.

If the Haslams wanted Fulmer this entire time, then they have taken action after action that has made it harder for them to achieve that goal.

The Currie hire and botched Schiano hire are very obvious Haslam power plays. If they wanted Phil the whole time, just hire him instead of Currie! No fake "crisis" had to be created in order to create the conditions for him to come in. Most of the admin wanted Fulmer anyway. What is so hard to understand about this?

 

[MAUSERWERKE]

You do know she was the Chancellor not the athletic director, right? It wasnt her fault Currie screwed up. Haslams hired Currie. Haslams and Currie tried to hire Schiano. Everyone, the fans and other major boosters, were tired of the screwups. She did good in that situation. Cleaned up the mess. Aligned with the boosters that opposed the Haslam's and brought fulmer in. She was responsible for nothing that went off the rails. Nothing.

My understanding is that Currie reported directly to Davenport?

 

[MAUSERWERKE]

Davenport still shares in the blame. I don't know for sure, but I'm assuming the way it works is that people in power propose a name(s) and the Haslams say yea or nay. So if the names were Currie, Fulmer, John Doe 1, John Doe 2, Blackburn, etc., Haslam responds with "anyone but Fulmer or Blackburn." So Davenport still shares blame in picking Currie, who was probably worse than a John Doe 1 or 2 would have been. I highly doubt Haslam told Davenport that she had to hire Currie specifically; he's just one of many people Davenport talked to that Haslam would also be OK with.

However, you are right, she sided with boosters other than the Haslams and most of the athletic department by firing Currie and installing Fulmer as AD. That, along with her refusing to outsource those facilities management jobs, led to her own firing a few months later.

This is more in line with my understanding. Also, if you look at the process of hiring Currie, it was not properly done IMHO. My son was a student at KU at the time and had a lot of friends at KSU. Currie was widely regarded as a nincompoop at KSU. He seemed to go out of his way to alienate Bill Snyder, which seems clearly and self evidently stupid.

 

[05_never_again]

This is more in line with my understanding. Also, if you look at the process of hiring Currie, it was not properly done IMHO. My son was a student at KU at the time and had a lot of friends at KSU. Currie was widely regarded as a nincompoop at KSU. He seemed to go out of his way to alienate Bill Snyder, which seems clearly and self evidently stupid.

I saw a couple local media reports out of Kansas City the day Currie was hired and KSU people didn't exactly seem broken up over it. He supposedly was a great fundraiser, which they really needed at the time, but I don't think he was all that widely liked within the athletic department and among some of their coaches, particularly Snyder and Frank Martin (precisely the two you would want to be on good terms with). The Snyder situation honestly seems intractable because apparently he's insistent that his son take over for him, and Bill Snyder is 78. He could retire at any second.

Currie fit the profile Haslam wanted perfectly because he was a Hamilton disciple who had gone on and had experience somewhere else, and if he was the one who brought him back into the fold he would control him.

 

[GRN1926]

My understanding is that Currie reported directly to Davenport?

Yea, but that doesn't mean that she micro manages him. He was an AD at a major sports program making $1M/yr. I'm sure he had a little autonomy in his position.

 

[GRN1926]

Big Jim is a very nice man, you may not like it or his son but the father was a good man and did a lot of good for UT. I can't speak for Jimmy. I have never met him other than just in passing

He obviously didnt raise his children right. They're scum which is proven by their actions

 

[wmcovol]

Do you people see the Haslams under your bed at night?

Well, lets face it. Someone has done a hell of a job screwing things up around here. If General Neyland came back, he wouldnt believe Tennessee football could suck this bad.

 

[GRN1926]

Controversial UT board of trustees overhaul plan clears Tennessee House

That squeaked by almost completely under the radar. There was a large movement by both citizens and representatives in the 11th hour in attempt to stop it but failed. A small victory was won because Bill only got to select about half of the board. The new governor will select the other half. Plus a ton of criticism came out against the haslam's and board members during that. Jubran, the Haslam's enforcer on the board (it's also convenient that Bill gave Jubran's company MILLIONS of dollars of govt contracts while he was governor) re signed from the board among others due to this.

 

[BigOrangeVols]

Hmmm, how so?

Just do a little reading. There's no way half of it is true.

 

[Orange_Vol1321]

Just do a little reading. There's no way half of it is true.

You have your head in the sand.

 

[BigOrangeVols]

You have your head in the sand.

I read in here that you weren't a virgin and that's when I knew everything in here was false.

 

[GRN1926]

Just do a little reading. There's no way half of it is true.

If you live in TN then call a few of your representatives and see what they have to say about Bill Haslam. The guy literally tried to sell public land to his friend for commercial development. That literally happened.

 

[jbr82]

Far too many people on here have no real knowledge of Little Jimmy Haslam and his brother the Govenor and their NOT being trustable where UT is concerned and all the damage the Haslam family has caused for UT especially for our footVol program.

Randy Boyd simply HAS been a Haslam insider and supporter for years and I do NOT trust him either.

Since Randy Boyd lost his attempt to become our next govenor to Bill Lee he now needs another government paid job of power and influence so the Haslams hand picked his as their puppet at UT even though he doesn't have the education and is NOT qualified.

Randy Boyd is a place holder until our Govenor Haslam has been out of office for awhile and then our Govenor will slide into Boyds place at UT for more Haslam control over UT.

Little Jimmy Haslam and his head henchmen at Pilot/Flying J really should be in prison right now but once again all their Millions of $$$$ have bought their stay out of jail cards.

It's sad how little people really know about the power and influence the Haslam family has over UT.

FACT is that the last decade+ of destroying Tennessee footVol lies right in the laps of the corrupt Haslam family!!!

We need to FIGHT keeping Randy Boyd far away from UT!!!

VFL...GBO!!!

If ppl want to be willfully ignorant then let them be imo. The scandal you speak of was a huge deal....and the case was in Chattanooga courtroom. Did anyone notice their was very little coverage of it from the media in TN? Hmmm

 

[jbr82]

You did follow the AD search that resulted in Currie being hired, correct? Fulmer and Blackburn were the favored, preferred candidates for that job by both the fans and basically all of the boosters except Haslam.

There was no need to, in fact, it would have been insane to, hire a patsy like Currie who they knew would screw up so Phil could swoop in. There was no need to create a situation that would allow Phil to swoop in. If they wanted him to be the AD all along, he would have been the guy instead of Currie. Given the nature of the situation at the time, your logic makes no sense.

Common sense isn’t allowed here

 

[Jackcrevol]

Anyone who thinks the Haslams are good at running sports teams, should rsearch the Brown's team. NFL Network said they have numerous first round draft picks between 09 and 16 and not 1 was still on the team.

It took a first round qb to win their first game in nearly two seasons, against a really bad Jets team.

Lord have mercy.

 

[Smallvol#1]

Pettiness? Really? I followed like most fans the coaching search debacle that ultimately Ms. Davenport was responsible for. I think she was completely out of her depth.

She was out of her depth. Didn’t take much to figure that out. So....who hired her? And after hiring her why did they not support her during the necessary learning curve? Did she go rogue? Standing up for employees vs outside contractor? In bad with Haslams? Going gung ho on sex week? Displeased legislature? Was within an inch of signing off on Schinio? Fan outrage? Her firing was an example of poor leadership, bad decisions, stupidity (can’t communicate so a tenured position in College of Communications!), and sheer pettiness/meaness/whatever. I didn’t support her at hiring; I didn’t support Currie at hiring; I thought both were bad hires done in a push for control. All that said, Joe D should hang his head in shame. Fortunately they hired a great leader for interim Chancellor....with their record, that had to be an accident. Blind hog you know.

 

[EZE]

Well, lets face it. Someone has done a hell of a job screwing things up around here. If General Neyland came back, he wouldnt believe Tennessee football could suck this bad.

This is a statement that cannot be disputed.

Sad state of affairs.