Danny White Year 1

#1

SNAFU

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#1
"The University of Tennessee is the only school in the country that can claim a football bowl game, NCAA Tournament bids for men’s and women’s basketball and a College World Series appearance in baseball in the calendar year of 2021, all of which makes for a pretty successful first year for athletic director Danny White.

That anniversary is Friday, and right now the Vols also can boast about the No. 1 men’s tennis team in the country, two more pending NCAA hoops bids — with Kellie Harper’s team at No. 5 in the nation, 17-1 and perhaps on its way to special things — the highest Graduation Success Rate (91 percent) in school history and a lot of reasons for 2022 football excitement. The complaints about White’s decision to hire Josh Heupel, his football coach at UCF, have turned to commendations."

"I think we’ve accomplished a lot in the first year. In my mind, I liken it to a foundation. We’re not done with the foundation yet, but we’ve done a lot of good work in building a foundation from which we can have a ton of success. I think about building a business model that allows us to go back to being the Tennessee we once were. Getting our facilities back to being at the top of the SEC and the country. We’ve started projects already and we’re working through the process of others to make sure that happens. Fundraising has gone really well in that respect. And then doing things to get our budget model and revenue machine going to the place when Tennessee was competing for national championships. Not just football but across the board. We were one of the top budgets in the SEC, one of the top Learfield Cup all-sports ranking finishers in the SEC as a department."

Rexrode, The Athletic
 
#2
#2
"The University of Tennessee is the only school in the country that can claim a football bowl game, NCAA Tournament bids for men’s and women’s basketball and a College World Series appearance in baseball in the calendar year of 2021, all of which makes for a pretty successful first year for athletic director Danny White.

That anniversary is Friday, and right now the Vols also can boast about the No. 1 men’s tennis team in the country, two more pending NCAA hoops bids — with Kellie Harper’s team at No. 5 in the nation, 17-1 and perhaps on its way to special things — the highest Graduation Success Rate (91 percent) in school history and a lot of reasons for 2022 football excitement. The complaints about White’s decision to hire Josh Heupel, his football coach at UCF, have turned to commendations."

"I think we’ve accomplished a lot in the first year. In my mind, I liken it to a foundation. We’re not done with the foundation yet, but we’ve done a lot of good work in building a foundation from which we can have a ton of success. I think about building a business model that allows us to go back to being the Tennessee we once were. Getting our facilities back to being at the top of the SEC and the country. We’ve started projects already and we’re working through the process of others to make sure that happens. Fundraising has gone really well in that respect. And then doing things to get our budget model and revenue machine going to the place when Tennessee was competing for national championships. Not just football but across the board. We were one of the top budgets in the SEC, one of the top Learfield Cup all-sports ranking finishers in the SEC as a department."

Rexrode, The Athletic

A word from experience and observation over many years. When you look at a successful first year person (sometimes more) in any endeavor I can think of, you must look at the person that came before them. If any successful first year leader is truthful, they will, at least to themselves give some credit and thanks to their processor. Regardless of how that person is/was perceived by others.
 
#3
#3
"The University of Tennessee is the only school in the country that can claim a football bowl game, NCAA Tournament bids for men’s and women’s basketball and a College World Series appearance in baseball in the calendar year of 2021, all of which makes for a pretty successful first year for athletic director Danny White.

That anniversary is Friday, and right now the Vols also can boast about the No. 1 men’s tennis team in the country, two more pending NCAA hoops bids — with Kellie Harper’s team at No. 5 in the nation, 17-1 and perhaps on its way to special things — the highest Graduation Success Rate (91 percent) in school history and a lot of reasons for 2022 football excitement. The complaints about White’s decision to hire Josh Heupel, his football coach at UCF, have turned to commendations."

"I think we’ve accomplished a lot in the first year. In my mind, I liken it to a foundation. We’re not done with the foundation yet, but we’ve done a lot of good work in building a foundation from which we can have a ton of success. I think about building a business model that allows us to go back to being the Tennessee we once were. Getting our facilities back to being at the top of the SEC and the country. We’ve started projects already and we’re working through the process of others to make sure that happens. Fundraising has gone really well in that respect. And then doing things to get our budget model and revenue machine going to the place when Tennessee was competing for national championships. Not just football but across the board. We were one of the top budgets in the SEC, one of the top Learfield Cup all-sports ranking finishers in the SEC as a department."

Rexrode, The Athletic

Hard not to be thrilled with the trendline of most every program over there with the knowledge we have a guy at the top with the pedigree and demonstrated experience in that role. I am hoping it is in fact the NEAR perfect match. But we owe a lot of that to the real worker bee's in the department that preceded those there now that fed the decision makers a lot of good info that allowed us to keep the coaches and their staffs that we needed to and outside of the the Pruitt hire as a real outlier I don't see a lot of hiring issues. White has hired very few, and CPF did not have to make all that many changes either.

WBB I hope is really where it appears to be, we now have a coach who learned the recipes from the master and is working her way through the hands on phase of being at a school with a sustained ceiling opportunity. Still a few issues that would not exist under PHS after her early years. It appears she has the right priorities in finding quality ball players with character and goals to sustain Pat's graduation rate example.

If our loyal faithful with resources can keep us in the game with facilities, salaries and get us in the game with the new NIL needs to be competitive life can be pretty good, transfer portal and all. Our relative position in the recruiting world will not change, but our success rate going head to head with those upstream can improve as we put our clouds behind us and our perception of stability returns. Big Orange, checkerboards, Vol Navy, and other distinctly UT features are still out there to sell.

I am going to believe in our current brain trust until their plans to mitigate the NCAA issues are proved faulty and that includes the schollie limitation plans they seem to be employing. Just guessing that they are based on some of our people taking to their people and getting unguaranteed but probable best case numbers. Time will tell.
 
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#4
#4
Let's not overplay the importance of NCAA bids in basketball. It's something, but not exactly a major achievement. They are big tournaments with lots of participants. Tennessee's most impressive progress has been in non-revenue sports. As noted, the men's tennis team is stout--ranked No. 1 now. It won the SEC Tourney title last year and might have won the national championship--losing a tight national semifinal to Baylor. We did win a national title last year in men's doubles. Excellent coach, strong program. The women's swimming program is strong--won the SEC title two years ago and may win it again this year, and is a national (top 5/6) contender. Kredich is well-regarded as one of the best swimming coaches in the nation. The baseball team went to the college championship tourney. The soccer team won the SEC tourney last year, went to third round of NCAA's--and should be formidable again this year. Women's basketball is having an excellent season and could be a serious threat in the NCAA this year; after a lot of years in the wilderness, the program is trending in the right direction again. As for our revenue sports, despite a lot of silly carping about his salary, Barnes has brought a ton of credibility to our BB program. And football--UT's big daddy program? We were all impressed and encouraged by the job Heupel did last year. Now it's a question of recruiting and working to get over the big hump that is the big dogs we face every year in the SEC. But, yea, all in all, a lot of programs doing well, with good coaches, and it would be great to see one of them--or more!--win a national title soon.
 
#5
#5
A word from experience and observation over many years. When you look at a successful first year person (sometimes more) in any endeavor I can think of, you must look at the person that came before them. If any successful first year leader is truthful, they will, at least to themselves give some credit and thanks to their processor. Regardless of how that person is/was perceived by others.

You have a great future in fertilizer sales.
 
#6
#6
A word from experience and observation over many years. When you look at a successful first year person (sometimes more) in any endeavor I can think of, you must look at the person that came before them. If any successful first year leader is truthful, they will, at least to themselves give some credit and thanks to their processor. Regardless of how that person is/was perceived by others.
'
If Fulmer hadnt left a huge "Cleveland Steamer" on his way out Im sure White would acknowledge his contribution but reality is Fulmer left the biggest scandal in UT sports history behind.......
 
#9
#9
Good to have good fertilizer sales folks when your fan base is overstocked with fertilizer.


That was clear about the administration the day Fulmer was hired as AD. But we have enough to make Greenland green. Or if they get irrigation going well there, what about Ethopia? We could cause an obesity crisis over there if we got the shipping issue solved. I guess they got some of the hunger crisis issues solved there, but has anyone ever met a fat Ethopian? I don't think so.
 
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#11
#11
I know this is a little off “forum” relevant to the thread, but Danny is going to have a major decision to make with Barnes and Vol Hoops in a few years or so. Thankfully Kellie Harper looks like she has the lady vols trending back toward prominence of Summitt’s teams.
 
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#13
#13
Tennessee is slowly becoming Athlete-U. Rugby, Cornhole, Soccer, WBB, baseball, tennis…get football back into the natty conversation and men’s basketball a final four appearance and we’ll be sitting pretty.
 
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#14
#14
"The University of Tennessee is the only school in the country that can claim a football bowl game, NCAA Tournament bids for men’s and women’s basketball and a College World Series appearance in baseball in the calendar year of 2021, all of which makes for a pretty successful first year for athletic director Danny White.

That anniversary is Friday, and right now the Vols also can boast about the No. 1 men’s tennis team in the country, two more pending NCAA hoops bids — with Kellie Harper’s team at No. 5 in the nation, 17-1 and perhaps on its way to special things — the highest Graduation Success Rate (91 percent) in school history and a lot of reasons for 2022 football excitement. The complaints about White’s decision to hire Josh Heupel, his football coach at UCF, have turned to commendations."

"I think we’ve accomplished a lot in the first year. In my mind, I liken it to a foundation. We’re not done with the foundation yet, but we’ve done a lot of good work in building a foundation from which we can have a ton of success. I think about building a business model that allows us to go back to being the Tennessee we once were. Getting our facilities back to being at the top of the SEC and the country. We’ve started projects already and we’re working through the process of others to make sure that happens. Fundraising has gone really well in that respect. And then doing things to get our budget model and revenue machine going to the place when Tennessee was competing for national championships. Not just football but across the board. We were one of the top budgets in the SEC, one of the top Learfield Cup all-sports ranking finishers in the SEC as a department."

Rexrode, The Athletic

And lets not forget we are the Rugby and Cornhole national champions (hard to say that last part without giggling a bit, a la Beavis and Butthead)
 
#15
#15
Fulmer gets credit? Uh.....no.

White gets kudos? Incomplete at this point. Heupel looks like a good choice for now. We don't really know if White has done a good job with the NCAA investigation as there's no info on where we stand at this point. We appear to be way behind the NIL thing which has been damaging to both men's basketball and football recruiting. I'm mostly positive about what he can do here but I'm not seeing enough evidence of progress at this point. It's very early still.
 
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#16
#16
And lets not forget we are the Rugby and Cornhole national champions (hard to say that last part without giggling a bit, a la Beavis and Butthead)
Neither of those matter or have any actual connection to the AD or our school
 
#18
#18
'
If Fulmer hadnt left a huge "Cleveland Steamer" on his way out Im sure White would acknowledge his contribution but reality is Fulmer left the biggest scandal in UT sports history behind.......
Definitely. We are still trying fish that deuce out of the punch bowl that Phil left behind in our largest revenue producing sport. I believe our recruiting and portal issues are chiefly because of the unresolved NCAA issues from this.
 
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#19
#19
Fulmer gets credit? Uh.....no.

White gets kudos? Incomplete at this point. Heupel looks like a good choice for now. We don't really know if White has done a good job with the NCAA investigation as there's no info on where we stand at this point. We appear to be way behind the NIL thing which has been damaging to both men's basketball and football recruiting. I'm mostly positive about what he can do here but I'm not seeing enough evidence of progress at this point. It's very early still.

How do we appear to be behind in the "NIL thing?" The University hasn't been able to affect NIL deals by law until just recently. So if we *are* behind, you can't lay that on Danny White. I'm not rah-rah'ing the dude, but c'mon man.. None of us laymen understand how the NIL has worked to this point, and going forward, that's going to be on boosters and local businesses, and national businesses that want to give our players deals.
 
#22
#22
Danny White has been an outstanding hire. First time since Dickey that we have a solid AD in charge.

Yes.. but Fulmer hired most of these coaches if not all. The only hire White can claim so far is in Football…. Yea Fulmer screwed up with Pruitt but the search was basically ruined when he came into it.

I think Fulmer did a great job with most of the sports… just not really with football bc it was a huge rebuild and he hired Pruitt who wasn’t the right dude…

Whether White does a great job or not will take several Years to find out.
 
#23
#23
With limited evidence to go on, I like White so far. He demonstrates a strategic, professional and positive demeanor. Seems to be confident in his role and the University, so that hopefully creates positive energy in others around him. I like the way he carries out his business - keeping things confidential. Only time will tell, but so far so good. Be interesting to see how the basketball coaching role plays out over the next two or three years.
 
#24
#24
AD and Administration get a check mark for ... "Cleaning house."
White gets a pass for now on how the NCAA mess was handled. (It will be a while before we know who was deciding what moves we were going to make.)
White gets credit for contract extensions! (9 coaches at least according to my memory) The most significant was holding on to Tony Vitello!
White also extend Rick Barnes contract 2 years. This one is interesting. I was surprised. Mike K at Duke is retiring this year at 74. Barnes will be 71 at contract end in 2026.
White gets credit for the Football product which was much superior to what we have had in the last 12 years.
All in all, I want to see a few more years before I start comparing him to Dickey ... but for now he is much better than 3 of the last 4!
 
#25
#25
Yes.. but Fulmer hired most of these coaches if not all. The only hire White can claim so far is in Football…. Yea Fulmer screwed up with Pruitt but the search was basically ruined when he came into it.

I think Fulmer did a great job with most of the sports… just not really with football bc it was a huge rebuild and he hired Pruitt who wasn’t the right dude…

Whether White does a great job or not will take several Years to find out.

Other than WBB what other coach did Phil hire?
 
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