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football Edit

Athletic director hot board

The search to replace Dave Hart has been going on quietly since Hart announced his resignation in August. That search is expected to ramp up now that Tennessee has named an chancellor this week. Here's our initial Hot Board of where we think that search might go.

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David Blackburn

Current position — Chattanooga athletic director

Blackburn’s ties to Tennessee are well known. He’s not only a graduate of the University but spent most of his professional life climbing the ranks inside the athletic department, primarily on the football side of things. He served as Director of Football Operations before moving over to the administrative side of things where he managed a variety of different departments. His experience in facilities, event management and fund-raising give him an intimate feel for exactly what is involved in the athletic director position.

Since leaving for Chattanooga in 2013 Blackburn has done nothing but enhance his resume´. He’s made several key hires since taking over the department, and all look to been excellent calls. He hired Will Wade as his basketball coach who was so successful he left for the VCU job after two years. Blackburn replaced him with Matt McCall who took the roster Wade built and won the Southern Conference title last season.

On the football side Blackburn has overseen a program that won the Southern Conference title in 2015.

Jon Gilbert

Current position — Executive Senior Associate Athletics Director at Tennessee

Gilbert has been Dave Hart’s No. 2 man since his arrival, coming with Hart from Alabama in 2011.

Gilbert is a well-respected member of the athletic department who has served in a variety of roles since joining the department.

Gilbert oversees many different aspects in the day-to-day running of the department but is primarily responsible for basketball. He’s been intimately involved in the last two hires of Donnie Tyndall and Rick Barnes.

Gilbert has the support of some on campus, particularly Barnes. The obvious negative with Gilbert is that he has never run his own shop. Given Tennessee’s last experience with a similar situation and Mike Hamilton that could be seen as a stumbling block in Gilbert’s candidacy.

Rob Mullens

Current position — Oregon athletic director

This is another PAC-12 guy, but also another one who has spent time in the SEC. Mullens spent seven years at Kentucky under Mitch Barnhart. He was also with Barnhart at Oregon State before that. He's an alum of West Virginia and has plenty of ties to the East coast.

He’s been on the job in Eugene since 2010, meaning he’s overseen a meteoric rise for the Ducks’ athletic program in both football and men’s basketball.

The football program has won three Pac-12 titles under his watch, played in the inaugural College Football Playoff Championship game and boasts a Heisman Trophy winner in Marcus Mariota.

Mullens’ most prominent hire in his time was to tab Chip Kelly as the Ducks’ football coach, a home run. The subsequent choice of Mark Helfrich hasn’t worked out as well and Mullens could be overseeing a coaching search this winter.

Greg Byrne

Current position — Arizona athletic director

Byrne has been at Arizona since 2010, but he knows the SEC intimately. He was an associate athletic director at Kentucky as well as Mississippi State before assuming the athletic director’s job in Starkville, a job he held from 2008-2010.

Byrne made a couple of prominent hires during his three years running the show at Mississippi State that reflect well on him. He hired then Florida offensive coordinator Dan Mullen as head football coach, a decision that ushered in a successful run for the Bulldog program that saw them briefly reach climb to No. 1 in the Associated Press poll during the 2014 season.

He also had to replace legendary baseball coach Ron Polk, doing so by hiring John Cohen, a move that sparked an ugly protest from Polk. Cohen reached the College World Series and is himself now the athletic director at Mississippi State.

At Arizona Byrne’s biggest splash has come from overseen a $378 million expansion project in football and the hiring of coach Rich Rodriguez after firing Mike Stoops.

Byrne has also overseen a highly successful basketball program.

His experience running a large department as well as his SEC ties make him an interesting candidate.

Bubba Cunningham

Current position — North Carolina athletic director

This one would seem unlikely given the very high-profile NCAA investigation that’s seemingly been dragging on forever in Chapel Hill regarding academics. Nevertheless, his name seems to surface for a great deal of athletic director openings.

That’s probably a reflection of how he’s managed has navigated the Tar Heels through that current NCAA mess without sanctions, at least to this point.

He flirted with the Florida job to be Jeremy Foley’s successor, which resulted in his receiving to take his salary over $700,000.

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