AD John Currie: 'Tennessee football is in a great position'
Over the last five years in most any conversation that involved former Tennessee athletics director Dave Hart, the health of the football team was usually discussed.
Heading into last season, Hart declared the Tennessee football under head coach Butch Jones healthy. Days later, Hart announced he was stepping down. New athletic director John Currie has been on the job since April 1st. Over the last month and a half, Currie has done more listening than talking. He done more observing than acting.
He's seen the Vols go through spring practice, the NFL draft and spring recruiting success. Currie said he likes where his football program is and it's current "health."
“I think Tennessee football is in a great position,” Currie told Volquest.com. “I think coach Jones has provided tremendous leadership with the progression of our program the last four years. As you and I have talked before, candidly I didn't watch many games the last eight years. I caught a little of Bob Kesling and Tim Priest on the way home from a K-State game on Sirius, but I know how respected nationally the turnaround job and the rebuild has been under coach Jones' leadership.
“To be in a position we are in now from where we where. We were one “D” away or one “F” away from being on APR probation, and being ineligible for the postseason to now having the highest APR in our history, in addition to winning a bunch of games and three bowl games. I fully recognize we would like to be known as national champions and for having the highest APR in our history, but those two are not mutually exclusive things and building that solid foundation enables a lot of other great things to happen in the future.”
Currie certainly knows what a healthy Tennessee football program looks like. In his 12 seasons in Knoxville as an assistant athletic director, the football team was 109-43.
In Jones' first four seasons in Knoxville, the Vols are 30-21 with three straight bowl wins and back to back 9-4 seasons.
VolQuest will have more from Currie later this afternoon.