John Currie of K State Hired as AD

[volnpowell]

It was a mixed-bag. One bad hire. One good hire.

Problem is the bad hire was in hoops. If you make that kind of mistake in a state like Kansas and then refuse to fix it, then your departure will be welcomed by most fans.

Hamilton left us with bad hires and debt. Currie at least demonstrates competence in a major part of his job.

It is the other part of it, the personnel management part, that has my concern.

Who was the good hire... bringing Snyder back? They had losing record last year. I guess we will see in time if good hire.

 

[Herman Hickman]

Who was the good hire... bringing Snyder back? They had losing record last year. I guess we will see in time if good hire.

Jeff Mittie...the women's basketball coach. Three years in charge with gradual improvement each year in conference play.

Even that hire is noted by the author of the article I linked above as a "qualified success."

That being said, Mittie's performance on the job is generally viewed by their fans as positive. But you are not going to get the warm fuzzies from Kansans when you screw up the men's basketball program at their alma mater.

 

[KBVol]

From reporter Ryan Wallace, gopowercat.com, KState's Rivals site ......

Currie was type of guy that once you got past the public facade, he's a guy who's involved in areas that don't need his involvement. Interferes with guys who are trying to do their jobs. Micromanager.

Poor relationship with Snyder who's thought of in the highest regard around campus. Battled over scheduling. Currie mettled in recruiting,

Currie wanted team to take 4-5 hour bus ride to Norman, OK rather than fly to save money.

Great at game day atmosphere stuff around campus.

Mastermind at fund raising

Needs to let good people he's hired to do their work.

Can be NCAA compliant without "creating new rules" to make situations worse and bigger than they are.

Awful relationship with Frank Martin, said Currie was on him from the very start, including riding him about his sideline demeanor, made him do a video about good sportsmanship. Lol. Thought he was trying to push Frank Martin out from the beginning.

No reason why Currie can't change a bit and be an outstanding AD at Tennessee.


Edit- some previous tweets from Wallace earlier in the week...

"BOOM! John Currie back to Tennessee."

"Candidates who may have previously turned down K-State simply because of what they'd heard/know about Currie are now fully back in play."

 

[NashVol11]

All successful AD's make good and bad hires. Part of BECOMING a successful AD. Dickey hired Fulmer after hiring Wade Houston. He then made a string of mediocre to bad basketball hires. Currie has had a little more time than Blackburn but on a bigger stage. He hired a candidate with a proven track record and wasn't afforded the gift of revisionist backtracking that we fans enjoy. For every gamble on an unproven assistant that becomes a coaching superstar you have several tales of passing on a proven HC that has forgotten more about coaching than a new hire will ever learn...delicate balance and I just don't see a bad process in his data justifying the Weber hire.

Fulmer was a good football hire, but Dickey sucked at hiring basketball coaches. You literally just said he hired one bad basketball coach and followed it up by hiring a bunch of other bad basketball coaches. And that's supposed to inspire confidence? That represents "all successful ADs?" If anything, that example proves my point.

 

[flatiron]

From reporter Ryan Wallace, gopowercat.com, KState's Rivals site ......

Currie was type of guy that once you got past the public facade, he's a guy who's involved in areas that don't need his involvement. Interferes with guys who are trying to do their jobs. Micromanager.

Poor relationship with Snyder who's thought of in the highest regard around campus. Battled over scheduling. Currie mettled in recruiting,

Currie wanted team to take 4-5 hour bus ride to Norman, OK rather than fly to save money.

Great at game day atmosphere stuff around campus.

Mastermind at fund raising

Needs to let good people he's hired to do their work.

Can be NCAA compliant without "creating new rules" to make situations worse and bigger than they are.

Awful relationship with Frank Martin, said Currie was on him from the very start, including riding him about his sideline demeanor, made him do a video about good sportsmanship. Lol. Thought he was trying to push Frank Martin out from the beginning.

No reason why Currie can't change a bit and be an outstanding AD at Tennessee.


Edit- some previous tweets from Wallace earlier in the week...

"BOOM! John Currie back to Tennessee."

"Candidates who may have previously turned down K-State simply because of what they'd heard/know about Currie are now fully back in play."

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

 

[NashVol11]

Too bad you're irrelevant...like me.

I'm not saying it's important, I'm saying you didn't need "the gift of revisionist backtracking" to know that Weber sucks after following his career progression at Illinois. Again, his lack of success may have been surprising to YOU or your friends in Illinois, but it wasn't at all hard to see coming and especially shouldn't have been for an AD with a good eye for coaching talent.

 

[forgiven]

I was a DW fan and still am, but I see no reason to bury the guy who wound up with the job. I mean, Currie didn't take the job in order to piss some of you guys off. He left a P5 school of decent reputation to take our job, whereas in recent years we've had similar situations come to naught when candidates said no thanks. And when you consider how our men finished 12th in the SEC all-sports race last year... heck, I hope he hits the ground running. Go get'em. Your my guy until your not.. ..

he is the guy that gave us kiffin..so now we reward him for that

 

[volfan2024]

All the millions of dollars and MTSU men basketball, girl basketball, football is either even or above us (basketball). I understand hiring a younger person but I will never ever believe it wasn't politically motivated, no doubt in my mind.

 

[KBVol]

All the millions of dollars and MTSU men basketball, girl basketball, football is either even or above us (basketball). I understand hiring a younger person but I will never ever believe it wasn't politically motivated, no doubt in my mind.

1. This hire was absolutely a political exercise imo. The guy with the biggest bank account and hence voice didn't want either Fulmer or Blackburn, agree with you there

2. UTs AD revenue is approximately 4x that of MTSU's....$121mm vs $31mm

 

[forgiven]

the Haslam brothers should stick to selling watered down gas and keep the poor from getting health care. leave the Tennessee program alone. they can not run there own team. the Browns are the worst in the NFL

 

[Orange&White]

We are getting so worked up over Currie like he will be walking around Tennessee with free reigns. I do not pay much attention to those whiney K State fans. We all know that Tennessee has been controlled by the boosters for years now. Their actions are why we are in the hole that we are and until they realize that and change we may never get back to national prominence.

 

[Orange_Vol1321]

I keep seeing Davenport wanted an AD with P5 experience? Why? She was just hired as Chancellor with zero P5 experience.

Why does she think she can run the entire university without P5 experience yet says this about the AD.

Very hypocritical.

 

[butchna]

Fulmer was a good football hire, but Dickey sucked at hiring basketball coaches. You literally just said he hired one bad basketball coach and followed it up by hiring a bunch of other bad basketball coaches. And that's supposed to inspire confidence? That represents "all successful ADs?" If anything, that example proves my point.

Didn't get "good hires bad hires" out of that? That was an EXAMPLE from someone I consider a successful AD, yes. Others will make more good hires and others will make more bad hires. If your "point " hinges on Dickey being an example of a bad AD? Then it's lost.

 

[Behr]

I keep seeing Davenport wanted an AD with P5 experience? Why? She was just hired as Chancellor with zero P5 experience.

Why does she think she can run the entire university without P5 experience yet says this about the AD.

Very hypocritical.

I should probably have more information before saying this, but I'm feeling more and more discouraged about her and Currie.

The good news is, I could change my mind and it wouldn't take too much to do so.

 

[butchna]

I'm not saying it's important, I'm saying you didn't need "the gift of revisionist backtracking" to know that Weber sucks after following his career progression at Illinois. Again, his lack of success may have been surprising to YOU or your friends in Illinois, but it wasn't at all hard to see coming and especially shouldn't have been for an AD with a good eye for coaching talent.

As you fancy yourself to be? I'm sure you were typing your disdain furiously upon hire, and no one who was actually important enough to make decisions cared. I was no admirer of Weber but I could see the merits of hiring him based on numbers. Crux of our disagreement is your. "I knew this better and before everybody". I'm grounded in basic grounded reality...my superhero message board days are long past. :superman:

 

[Chief Vol 13]

Anybody have a good idea as to what Currie's philosophy is when hiring coaches? Rumor has it that he is a penny pincher. He could very well have a decision on his hands regarding Butch Jones after next season if he doesn't meet expectations. Will he be looking to bargain shop and hire some mid-level coach on the cheap or open up the checkbook to try and attract a proven winner? I know it's impossible to know for sure, thought maybe some of you guys could make an educated guess based off his history at K-State.

 

[knox73]

My son-in-law is K-State grad (lives in Knoxville now) and he is a fan of both schools. Said Currie did a phenomenal job raising K-State out of financial trouble. He is a big fan of Bill Snyder but said Currie had the stones to take him on on some issues - particularly scheduling which were tough. Of course people do not remember now that K-State once was the worst major conference program in the nation prior to Snyder. Not a fan of the basketball hire but agreed that Frank Martin is a challenging personality. His comments echoed those of others but apparently K-State was in terrible financial shape prior to Currie, really a deep hole to dig out of.

A couple of comments on Dickey and Fulmer. Dickey left Tennessee after 6 years of real success - went home to Florida where he flopped. He is vilified in Florida but respectedf in Tennessee where he had success (although many had a major grudge against him until Daryl was a hero on the 1985 team). I sure did and was disgusted when Doug was hired as AD - I pulled for him to lose at UF just like I did for Kiffy boy at USC. Fulmer, totally loyal to Tennessee, is one of the top 2 coaches in Vol history but he wore out his welcome with a mediocre stretch at the end. He was forced out in a classless way and then the Hamilton follies began with tragic hires.

Spurrier once said 10 years is the max a coach can have at any school and that seems to be about right. If Phil had retired following one of the 10 win seasons or his last 9 win season - he likely would be Vol AD - following Hamilton. There would have been a desire to have someone with football sense over the situation particularly if Kiffin-Dooley hires had followed Phil. Of course Cutcliffe might have been the choice if Fulmer retired on his own terms but Phil wanted to pursue Neyland's win record and the ship ran aground.

Dave Hart did an extremely good job in my opinion. He took over an absolute mess and made credible coaching hires as well as brought stability. Currie takes over a far better situation than Dave did. Best of luck to the new AD and the Vols.

 

[Iam4utalways]

I keep seeing Davenport wanted an AD with P5 experience? Why? She was just hired as Chancellor with zero P5 experience.

Why does she think she can run the entire university without P5 experience yet says this about the AD.

Very hypocritical.

I don't see setting that as the standard as being hypocritical unless she went and hired a buddy that didn't have P5 experience.

Can't really blame her for having higher standards than those that hired her.

 

[NashVol11]

As you fancy yourself to be? I'm sure you were typing your disdain furiously upon hire, and no one who was actually important enough to make decisions cared. I was no admirer of Weber but I could see the merits of hiring him based on numbers. Crux of our disagreement is your. "I knew this better and before everybody". I'm grounded in basic grounded reality...my superhero message board days are long past. :superman:

It doesn't matter what either of us think. I'm saying it was easy for plenty of others to see the warning signs, and he missed them. You're saying he made a reasonable decision based on overall record, ignoring the fact that Weber was struggling to even make the tournament by the time he got fired.

It seems like you think good records speak for themselves, regardless of context, and therefore that Weber's lack of success was somehow surprising. I think context matters, and just about all of the context in this instance was unfavorable to Weber. THAT'S the crux of our disagreement.

Would you applaud a Larry Coker hire for Tennessee football? He's 86-47 with a national championship, so I can only assume that's an automatic good hire by your criteria.

 

[NashVol11]

Didn't get "good hires bad hires" out of that? That was an EXAMPLE from someone I consider a successful AD, yes. Others will make more good hires and others will make more bad hires. If your "point " hinges on Dickey being an example of a bad AD? Then it's lost.

Dickey only cared about one sport. If a guy that runs our basketball program into the ground is your shining example of a good AD, I can see why you're impressed with Currie.

 

[Chief Vol 13]

If you think Doug Dickey wasn't a great AD you're crazy, Nash.

 

[NashVol11]

If you think Doug Dickey wasn't a great AD you're crazy, Nash.

He was good. In the basketball context, he was terrible. He wasn't a good basketball mind that just happened to hire a bunch of bad coaches in a row.

 

[NashVol11]

So saying, "good basketball coach evaluators make bad hires all the time. Look at this bad basketball evaluator who hired several bad coaches, as an example!" doesn't hold much weight or give me much hope for Currie hiring a basketball coach.

 

[NashVol11]

At the end of the day, he's here to fix football, but we don't really have any evidence to suggest that he'll be good at that. Aside maybe from firing Fulmer, but I would imagine a lot of people here still aren't too happy about that.

 

[butchna]

It doesn't matter what either of us think. I'm saying it was easy for plenty of others to see the warning signs, and he missed them. You're saying he made a reasonable decision based on overall record, ignoring the fact that Weber was struggling to even make the tournament by the time he got fired.

It seems like you think good records speak for themselves, regardless of context, and therefore that Weber's lack of success was somehow surprising. I think context matters, and just about all of the context in this instance was unfavorable to Weber. THAT'S the crux of our disagreement.

Would you applaud a Larry Coker hire for Tennessee football? He's 86-47 with a national championship, so I can only assume that's an automatic good hire by your criteria.

Larry Coker seems to be your default comparison to Weber. Show me where Coker headed a program successfully PRIOR to Miami...as Weber did with Southern Illinois. Coker got the Canes gig due to being the most beloved coach to players after Butch Davis left for the Browns. Weber took over for Self after being a giant killer and leading the Saluki's to the Sweet 16. So your comparison is way off kilter and so is any inkling by you of what my "criteria" is. Keep pretending.