KNOXVILLE – Dave Hart insists he’s no different than anyone else in Tennessee’s football fan base.
The fifth-year athletic director also wishes he was spending the weekend in Atlanta to watch the Volunteers play for the SEC championship against Alabama.
Even though that isn’t the case, Hart feels pretty strongly that Tennessee remains on an upward trajectory under third-year coach Butch Jones.
“I think everyone in our organization would like to have been in Atlanta,” Hart said Tuesday. “We’ll be in Atlanta. This was a good step this year. Winning eight games was a very positive step for our football program.
“I go back to the Georgia game when we were down 24-3 coming off some gut-wrenching, heartbreaking losses, and without question, that’s when this team took a giant step forward. If the culture wasn’t what it is, what Butch has developed, that would not have occurred. And we haven’t looked back since that comeback against Georgia.