Coaches defend Tennessee's culture with joint press conference in response to sexual assault lawsuit

KNOXVILLE -- The press conference the University of Tennessee athletic department held on Tuesday morning most likely was the first of its kind in the history of college sports.

The head coaches from each of Tennessee's 15 varsity sports held a joint press conference in response to the recent blowback against the university stemming from a federal lawsuit filed two weeks ago.

The aim of the press conference, which was the idea of the coaches, was to show a unified front in the face of negative public opinion.

"We know that we don't the stereotype that there's something out there that's not true," men's basketball coach Rick Barnes said to open the nearly hour-long session. "It's not perfect now and it's never going to be perfect, but the fact is, and I can tell you this: The University of Tennessee's athletic department is as good as I've ever seen anywhere that I've ever been.

"When you look at what's going on, we have to stand up as a group and tell you all the good side of it, too. We have to do that. It's not fair to our current student-athletes, our former student-athletes and our future student-athletes that they don't understand there are great things going on in this campus."

Coaches from every sport defended the culture of the athletic department in the wake of the pending lawsuit, filed earlier this month by six women -- the suit soon could add plaintiffs, too -- that targets the university's handling of alleged sexual assault and rape cases and claims there's a "hostile" environment on campus for women.

The department has been marred, too, by the recently-settled lawsuits involving multiple former employees and the branding issue with the Lady Vols logo.

The coaches consistently cited the sharing of facilities, the support from one another within the program and the camaraderie between the coaches.

Multiple coaches also noted that the campus is safe for women and there's plenty of support for women's sports.

Athletic director Dave Hart and chancellor Jimmy Cheek were absent, however.

"Today was the day that worked (for every coach," Tennessee spokesman Ryan Robinson said. "Dave is out of town, along with several other administrators. I do want to put that on the record."

The most relevant figure at the press conference was football coach Butch Jones, whose had seven players accused of sexual or domestic assault in his three-plus years in Knoxville.

The football program generates the most press and the most money for the athletic department, and Jones again defended his program while also saying twice he felt for the women involved in the alleged incidents.

"First of all, everything is about the alleged victims," Jones said. "We take that very, very seriously. We feel for them, wee hurt for them, so I think it starts there first and foremost.

"It's not who we are. We have great players in our football program. We have great individuals in this entire athletic department. We have a very good culture in place. That's why I said we're going to defend our culture. We have good people. They're embarrassed by it. They're upset about it. They know it's not who we are.

"We talk about choices, we talk about decisions and we talk about that quite frequently. That's been well-documented."

While other coaches said their recruiting efforts have not been impacted by the negativity, Jones said Tennessee's competitor have used the situation against them with prospects.

"Have we had some individuals make some poor choices? Absolutely," Jones said. "But I think anyone who's a father and a mother, if you look back and you're real with yourself and and your parenthood, they've also made choices that maybe were inappropriate.

"It's our job to continue to educate them and hold them responsible for their choices. ... That's my job. I live it every day. When everything happens, I take it personally, because it does mean something to me. I understand what we represent. Our players now understand what they represent.

"I think it's unfair that a lot of these individuals that don't go to parties, that have never touched a drop of alcohol, that are tremendous ambassadors for the University of Tennessee -- and I tell our football team the actions of one reflect on all.

"I get that, but I don't want to diminish the great people that we have here in the administrator, the coaching staff, the student body and our student-athletes."

Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.