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Tennessee Vols Athletic Director John Currie has already made numerous big decisions

By Caleb Calhoun

Feb 22, 2017; Knoxville, TN, USA; The Tennessee Volunteers flag is seen during pregame festivities before the Volunteers game against the Vanderbilt Commodores. Mandatory Credit: Brianna Paciorka/Knoxville News Sentinel via USA TODAY NETWORK
Feb 22, 2017; Knoxville, TN, USA; The Tennessee Volunteers flag is seen during pregame festivities before the Volunteers game against the Vanderbilt Commodores. Mandatory Credit: Brianna Paciorka/Knoxville News Sentinel via USA TODAY NETWORK /
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Tennessee Vols athletic director has only been on the job for a couple of months. But he has already been involved in major moves with the UT Volunteers.

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We won’t run from it. When the news broke that the Tennessee Vols new athletic director would be John Currie, this site heavily criticized the move.

You can see our report here on why Currie is such an awful hire. At this point, even if he proves us wrong, we based this article on the evidence we had.

And all that evidence worked against him.

Well, as the Tennessee Vols get set to begin their first full academic sports year with Currie at the helm, he has already been involved in multiple big moves by the university.

And each one was more significant than the last.

Very soon after taking the job, he fired men’s tennis coach Sam Winterbotham despite three total SEC championships and a 2010 appearance in the NCAA tournament championship match through 11 years.

Then, after the questionable firing, he made the questionable decision to hire a Vols assistant as the replacement: Chris Woodruff.

The next big move was Dave Serrano’s inevitable resignation from the Tennessee Vols baseball program. There was a strong possibility that this would be Currie’s first big move, and it came to be true.

But Currie once again brought in an assistant from Arkansas, Tony Vitello.

To be fair, Vitello has all the credentials to lead the program outside of being a head coach. But we will not judge either of these hires until we see the product they put out.

But without a doubt, the biggest administrative story since Currie’s arrival involves a newly created position.

Former Tennessee Vols football head coach Phillip Fulmer coming back into the fold as special adviser to UT President Joe DiPietro was a huge move.

Fans and alumni and former university affiliates, from players to staff, universally praised the move. It brought unity beyond all else.

And while there’s no evidence Currie made that decision, it’s crazy to think he wasn’t a part of the process. Considering the fact that he was part of the division in the university after Fulmer’s firing in 2008, it was a hugely important move.

Now, after three big personnel moves, the athletic program is about to enter its next academic year.

We can begin judging John Currie’s moves more regularly. And there are plenty of moves he might make.

Butch Jones and Holly Warlick being on the hot seat obviously lead the pack of potentially huge decisions this upcoming season.

And there could be many more.

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There’s no telling which way Currie will go on things, but it’s clear that he’s already been a part of some big moves on the university’s campus. And that’s in a very short amount of time.

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