Ranking all five Tennessee Vols athletic directors by performance in 2010s decade

3. Dave Hart; 2011-2016

When Dave Hart took over, the Tennessee Vols football program was in complete disarray. Derek Dooley inherited a complete mess, and he was doing everything he could to try to rebuild the program in his second year on the job.

We don’t know if Dooley would have worked out. But Hart sabotaged him and made it impossible. He publicly undercut Dooley, then he refused to renew staff contracts at the end of the year after a 5-7 season. After not giving Dooley the money he needed to find new staff members, Dooley found a bunch of people not ready, most notably defensive coordinator Sal Sunseri.

That resulted in the disastrous 2012 season, which ended with Dooley being fired. How did Hart respond? He brought in Butch Jones, who turned out to be another failure five years later. So his Tennessee football tenure was a problem.

What else was a mistake under him? Well, he oversaw the sexual assault lawsuit against the university and the disastrous coaches’ press conference. He took out the Lady Vols name and hired Holly Warlick, which didn’t work out. Most notably, though, he hired Donnie Tyndall and had to fire him a year later due to NCAA infractions.

However, there are some positives. Warlick was a great hire on its face, as she was by far the most qualified. Her not working out is all about hindsight. He also hired Brian Pensky, who has overseen record success in women’s soccer.

But most notably, he restored the finances of the athletic department and rectified his mistake with Tyndall by hiring Rick Barnes. That hire and the finances alone put him at No. 3, just above Currie on this list.