The Tennessee Vols hired Phillip Fulmer into a new role. But it shouldn’t yet change how people feel about Volunteers athletic director John Currie.
Related Story: 4 Reasons John Currie is an awful hire for Vols A.D.
The Tennessee Vols hired former football coach Phillip Fulmer as a special adviser to the school president this week in a part-time role. And the move has drawn critical acclaim in response.
President Joe DiPietro, Butch Jones, and athletic director John Currie have all given their thoughts on the matter.
Perhaps the biggest story, though, was Fulmer and Currie smoothing things over. Fulmer said there’s no animosity about not getting the athletic director job, and he also said it’s time for unity in the athletic department.
Meanwhile, Currie spoke highly of Fulmer as well.
The response makes this clear that this hire is a unity move. Mike Strange said as much in the Knoxville News Sentinel with this article, calling it a ‘welcome PR win.’
But don’t fall for it yet.
This may be a great PR move to help show unity for the school. And from that perspective, it’s smart by all parties involved.
However, we are still not backing off our stance against Currie’s hire as athletic director. No PR decision to bring back old coaches will change that.
So far, Currie has made two hires to sports programs. In both cases, he hired somebody with no head coaching experience.
We’re not going to hold that too much against him. But combine that with his abject failure with the Kansas State Wildcats, most notably running off Frank Martin and replacing him with Bruce Weber, along with his moves as assistant A.D. at Tennessee, including pushing for Lane Kiffin, and he has a terrible record right now.
Currie has yet to make a good hire in a major sport anywhere he’s been. He can’t take credit for the resurgence of the football program under Bill Snyder.
Snyder came back to Kansas State before Currie took over. So right now, he’s still a failure as an A.D.
Understanding the PR situation of the school where he’s athletic director won’t change that. Over the next three years, we’ll get to judge him on his baseball and tennis hires.
At the same time, there’s a very good chance he makes a hire in football, men’s basketball, or women’s basketball. One of the three could open at some point, even after next year.
And Currie’s most important job as Tennessee Vols athletic director is not unity or PR. It’s making the right hires to lead the athletic programs.
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To this point, his track record in that area is abysmal. So building a bridge to Fulmer to establish unity means nothing.
It just boosts the morale of Vol Nation for a little while.