KNOXVILLE – More than six months after Dave Hart announced he was stepping down, Tennessee finally hired a replacement for the outgoing athletic director.
Despite months of bluster and misinformation, the search process really only lasted a few weeks before Tennessee hired Kansas State’s John Currie on Tuesday.
New chancellor Beverly Davenport, confirmed in December as Jimmy Cheek’s replacement, didn’t officially move into her post until the middle of February, a couple of weeks after the university hired Turnkey Search firm and formed a six-member committee to aid Davenport in a search she led.
“Turnkey worked with us and for us,” Davenport explained Thursday when Tennessee introduced Currie at Thompson-Boling Arena. “Turnkey looked for candidates for us throughout the entire process, and they had been working with us. They took candidates to our search committee. Our search committee took candidates to me. That’s how it worked.”
Davenport said the search committee – former Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning, Cleveland Browns owner and Pilot Flying J CEO Jimmy Haslam, two members of the university’s board of trustees and two current administrators – met and talked with candidates, though not all of them were involved in Currie’s selection and interview.