University of Tennessee football coach Butch Jones, left, signs an autograph for Paul Finkleman during the Big Orange Caravan stop at the Chattanooga Convention Center on Thursday.
University of Tennessee Lady Vols basketball coach Holly Warlick, left, poses for a photo with Madison Hollis during the Big Orange Caravan stop at the Chattanooga Convention Center on Thursday.That sleepless night in December might seem like it was much more than five months ago to Tennessee athletic director Dave Hart.
One day after he thought he’d hired Louisville’s Charlie Strong to be the Volunteers’ football coach, Hart was in Lexington, Ky., visiting with Cincinnati coach Butch Jones for a late-night meeting that spilled over into the wee hours of a Friday morning.
Twenty-three weeks later, Hart described the experience of watching the man he hired energize a fan base and make some recruiting splashes in a brief amount of time.
“It’s been gratifying and exciting,” Hart said before the Big Orange Caravan’s stop Thursday night at the Chattanooga Convention Center. “I’m excited in general. I’m excited about where we are and where we’re headed, and clearly we got the right guy.
“We got a guy who wanted to the head coach at the University of Tennessee. He’s passionate, he’s genuine and I think he’s off to a very, very good start in terms of galvanizing our fan base, former lettermen, high school coaches. He’s prioritized those things, and he’s followed through on the fact that he wanted to prioritize those things.”