ATLANTA – As former University of Tennessee football star Chad Clifton drove down I-75 Friday morning toward the Big Peach, his phone began to overload with text messages.
“I thought it was going to explode,” he said inside the Hyatt Regency, where he was to be honored as one of the Southeastern Conference’s football legends during a Friday night banquet. “Everyone was calling about (UT athletic director) John Currie being fired.
“It’s just wild and crazy in Knoxville right now. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The Big Orange Nation, not to mention the rest of the college football community, may never have seen anything quite like what took place on the UT campus Friday.
Not only was Currie fired, but former coach Phillip Fulmer – a College Football Hall of Famer and something of a legend himself in Big Orange Country – was named Currie’s replacement.