KNOXVILLE - The on-field debut of Tennessee's new-look football program is still more than a month away.
The Volunteers, with four new coaches plus a new offensive coordinator and multiple voids to fill following the departures of key players, will begin spring practices March 21, the program announced Wednesday.
Unlike previous springs, Tennessee will start after the university's week off for spring break.
The Vols will practice every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for five consecutive weeks before concluding with the annual Orange & White Game at Neyland Stadium at 4 p.m. on April 22.
On Tuesday, the Southeastern Conference announced the spring game for each of its 14 members would be televised, and Tennessee's will be shown live on the SEC Network. Spring games at Georgia (2 p.m. on the SEC Network), Alabama (3 p.m., ESPN) and LSU (8 p.m., SEC Network) are the same day as Tennessee's.
Admission to the Orange & White Game again will be free, and coach Butch Jones and players will be available for autographs prior to kickoff as part of fan appreciation day.
Davenport says AD hunt will go 'very quickly'
Beverly Davenport, Tennessee's new chancellor, officially began work in Knoxville on Wednesday, roughly two months after her appointment was confirmed.
Davenport - who is the first female chancellor in the university's history and will be paid an annual salary of $585,000 - addressed a number of wide-ranging issues during her first news conference on campus. She joked about how many questions she has received on Twitter about Tennessee's ongoing search for a new athletic director.
"When and who, I'm going to tell you right now today," she said with a laugh. "We're going to hire this person tomorrow, how about that? Then we'd be done and I'll go home.
"In all seriousness, we're working really quickly. I'm here, we have the team together and we have a great search consultant (in Turnkey Search). Look at them and look at the searches they've just closed. They've landed the biggest ADs in the country. This is who we want. I've talked to them every day. I talked to them last night. We're meeting in a couple of days, and we're going to go very quickly now."
Davenport said in potential candidates she is stressing experience at an athletic department as large as Tennessee's, adherence to compliance and the ability to manage both the financial side of a multimillion dollar department and the amount of personnel in an operation as big as Tennessee's.
"Everybody tells me this is best, best job in the country," Davenport said, "so we're looking for people who can compete at that level."
Former DBs coach hired by Fickell at Cincinnati
Former Tennessee defensive backs coach Willie Martinez, replaced last month by Charlton Warren, has landed at Cincinnati, where he will be the cornerbacks coach on former Ohio State assistant Luke Fickell's first staff.
Martinez, a former defensive coordinator at Georgia, spent the past four seasons with the Vols.
"I'm very excited to bring Willie and his family to Cincinnati," Fickell said in a released statement. "I promised our team we would put together an outstanding staff to lead them, and we have done that. Early in this journey, we talked to our players about taking a leap of faith, and that is true of our coaching staff as well.
"You can go up and down the list of our coaches and you see great teachers, great motivators and great men. Our next step is to get spring football started and make an impact while continuing to lead our student-athletes to success."
Martinez had one year remaining on his contract at Tennessee, which ran through February 2018 and included a $395,000 base salary. Tennessee was slated to owe him more than $420,000 for the final 13 months of his deal, but the buyout will be offset by his new salary.
Cincinnati didn't reveal his salary after announcing the hire Wednesday.
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.