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Tennessee football: Takeaways from John Currie’s press conference on Butch Jones

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 15: A view of the outside of Neyland Stadium before a game between the Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers on September 15, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 15: A view of the outside of Neyland Stadium before a game between the Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers on September 15, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images) /
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Tennessee football fired Butch Jones and named Brady Hoke the Volunteers interim head coach. Here are three takeaways from John Currie’s press conference.

It may be almost a month late, but John Currie finally took action. The Vols athletic director fired Butch Jones Sunday and named Brady Hoke interim Tennessee football head coach with two games left on the schedule.

At 4-6 and 0-6 in the SEC, it was bound to happen. John Currie addressed the media in a press conference on the matter Sunday evening.

You can see that full press conference by clicking on the video above. For the most part, he gave typical quotes. He praised Butch Jones for what he did, addressed the timing of the matter and balancing the need to think about the program’s future with what’s best for the current players, and talked about Hoke’s success in the past as the reason for naming him interim coach.

However, his responses to a few questions give us a few big things we can gather about the future of the Tennessee football program. Here are three takeaways from Currie’s Sunday press conference.

1. Head coaching experience isn’t necessary for the next coach.

John Currie didn’t say this specifically, but you could imply it when he was asked the question. Otherwise, he would have openly said that yes, it’s necessary. Instead, he said that there are “different experiences” a coach could have.

And he added that it’s important to understand the magnitude of the Tennessee football head coaching job. Taking those things into account, it’s pretty clear that he’s casting a wide net for the next head coach. And that could be due to something else we gathered from the press conference.

1. Money may be an issue for the next head coach.

This didn’t sound like great news. However, when asked about the money to hire a new head coach, John Currie wasn’t exactly clear. His response was, “We could always use some more around here.”

Now, he did appear to be half-joking. However, he followed that up saying that he knows they have the “resources” to make the right hire for the Tennessee football program. That isn’t too reassuring. After all, if the money was there, he’d probably be able to say it up front. That he didn’t does raise concerns. But we could just be reading too much into this.

 3. No search firm will be used.

John Currie responded to two questions about this and said he wouldn’t use a search firm. Normally, that wouldn’t be too much of a problem. It’s not hard to see if a coach has been successful or not when you’re making a hire for Tennessee football.

However, search firms could help alert Currie to any baggage a coach might have. Remember the Donnie Tyndall situation for basketball? That could be reason to use a search firm. As a result, Vols fans need to hope Currie knows what he’s doing. This could hamper the chance to properly vet anybody that comes to Knoxville.

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