KNOXVILLE — Like many of Tennessee’s football players and coaches and their families, Dave Hart roamed happily around the field at EverBank field two Fridays ago, swapping high-fives, hugs and handshakes with a seemingly endless crowd of people celebrating the Volunteers’ first bowl victory in seven years.
One couldn’t blame the fourth-year athletic director for soaking in the moment following the 45-28 TaxSlayer Bowl triumph against Iowa, given the emphasis he’s placed during his tenure on restoring Tennessee’s football success.
There’s still ground to make up, of course, but Hart certainly is excited about the direction the Vols are heading going into Butch Jones’s third season as coach.
“We have a lot of momentum, positive momentum,” he told the Times Free Press in his office Thursday morning. “There’s a lot of positive energy right now. You can feel it in our building. It’s tangible.
“You talk to our coaches, talk to our student-athletes, our staff — we have a lot of positive energy right now, and our fan base has certainly generated a lot of positive energy everywhere I’ve been since the bowl. You see it, you feel it, and it’s again very, very rewarding, to know how hard everybody here has worked to get football healthy.
“We’re not where we want to go yet, but we’ve come a long way relative to that primary goal.”
It’s the goal with which Hart tasked Jones a little more than 25 months ago, after the unsuccessful Derek Dooley followed Lane Kiffin’s tumultuous one season in Knoxville and gave Tennessee’s proud program an even steeper climb back to respectability and relevance within the Southeastern Conference.
Mention to Hart that Jones was not his first choice — the Vols thought they were getting Louisville’s Charlie Strong, now at Texas, at one point — to replace Dooley after he was fired with one game left in the 2012 season, and he’ll quickly point out that Jones was on his original short list.
“Any time you go into a search, you better have three people that you feel comfortable can do the job,” Hart said. “Butch Jones is a phenomenal fit at the University of Tennessee. His work ethic is unparalleled. I’ve only been around a handful of coaches who have exhibited the work ethic that Butch exhibits, and they’re all championship-level coaches.
“There’s a correlation there. I think Butch is not only an outstanding recruiter, but he enjoys the recruiting process. He recruits 24-7. That’s always on his mind. All you have to do is walk into the conference room down there, and most of the time he’s in there staring at the recruiting board.
“He’s done a great job, he’s assembled a quality staff and everybody’s moving in the same direction with a whole lot of energy.”
That energy was apparent in Jacksonville when thousands of Tennessee fans swarming one gate of EverBank Field to meet Jones and the team as they entered for the Vols’ first bowl game since Dooley’s first season in 2010.
Hart probably used the Tennessee fan base’s ability to travel and sell tickets when lobbying for bowl positioning with the SEC in the league’s new slotting system, and he insisted he wasn’t overwhelmed by the showing for what turned out to be what he called a “really gratifying” win for a rebuilding program.
“The group that I’m really excited for is our fan base,” Hart said. “You’ve heard me say it many times, but we have the most passionate, loyal fan base, not only in college athletics, but I really believe in all of sports. They got rewarded, and they deserved to be rewarded.
“The showing by our fan base was astounding. Not surprising, but we’re very, very blessed to have the fan base we have here at Tennessee.”
Restoring the health of Tennessee’s program has been a mantra Hart has reiterated countless times in recent years, and he pointed to how well Jones and his staff continue to recruit, the dramatic improvement academically and even the elimination of “some competitive disadvantages” the program faced.
No one at Tennessee will say the Vols have arrived, but like many others, Hart believes the program is trending up.
“We’re beginning to build the depth now that it takes to compete for championships,” he said. “I think everybody has a right to feel good about where we are. We’re on an upward trajectory. There’s no question in my mind about that.”
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.