Since there is no track forum... I thought I'd post this here.

[DeerPark12]

The SEC is dog-eat-dog in track-and-field, as it is in every sport. While we've had some exceptional performers, it's been man years since
we were a power in T&F. I hope the new guy can improve our recruiting, but it won't be easy.

I chuckle at how Vol fans have got it into their heads that White is a superstar AD because...because why exactly? I hope this proves to be the case, but he's hired NONE none of the best coaches at UT. His big hire as been Huepel, whom he worked with at Central Florida. I like Huepel but he's done nothig yet.
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I think the biggest reason is because he’s out in front of fans and is assertive in getting facilities projects that have languished in delays for years actually off the ground. He listens to the fan feedback and uses it to guide some of the major decision making that he is doing. Past ADs sat in a perceived ivory tower and only listened to the donors that had their ears, or at least that’s how it seemed to fans. Dave Hart, for example, seemed to have almost a distaste for the average fan.

So in some ways, Danny actually had it pretty easy if he just acted like a normal human being. But he went above that, as much as he could. Having the extensive fan focus groups last year and seeing things from those groups actually happen in fairly short order endeared him to a lot of people that participated in them. Sure, that’s only a couple hundred people, but when you have a couple hundred people who see their ideas manifested pretty quickly, that has an impact on everybody they know and everybody they know. He has also gotten in front of a lot of donors, not just the biggest ones, to share his vision and how he wants to implement it. That helps spread the word and the confidence as well.

He certainly didn’t hire Tony Vitello, but what he did do was retain him when two of the biggest powers in the sport came after him. That’s not something I believe the last three athletic directors would have been able to do, either financially or with promises for the facility upgrades that have been talked about for more than a decade and, for the most part, haven’t happened at all. I love Phillip Fulmer with all my heart, but there was no way he was going to give Tony any type of deal or promise that was going to keep him from taking the LSU job last year. No chance. So Danny gets credit for that in my book, and in the minds of many others.

As far as actually hiring coaches, the department beyond football was actually in really good shape when he took over, so he hasn’t had to do very much of that. But I think he has shown his willingness to swing for the fences, so to speak, when he has to make a hire. he did eventually settle on Heupel, but made a couple of prominent names turn down top/five-in-the-country money before he got there. They hired a UT alum who had been Big Ten coach of the year at Maryland to coach women’s golf. He promoted the primary recruiter for the powerhouse women’s soccer team that we have built at a time in the year where it would’ve been difficult to conduct a search that would have led them anywhere else.

Now with this track hire, he has brought in someone who has built a top 10 men’s and women’s program at an HBCU. That’s literally unprecedented. If he can do that with the resources he had there, then this will be a slam dunk at Tennessee. Time will tell on all coaching hires, we’ve seen plenty that should have been home runs fizzle out and others that were less popular become runaway successes. But he’s off to a good start.