Stephen HargisFor the past six-plus years the Times Free Press has been fortunate to have Patrick Brown, who I believe was the most talented beat reporter in Knoxville, covering University of Tennessee athletics for us. Two weeks ago Patrick accepted an offer to join a media website covering the Volunteers, and under most circumstances that would have left our sports department scrambling to find a replacement as spring practice began.
However, unlike the months-long saga by the university to find a new athletic director, there was no need to hire a search committee, because we knew the best candidate was already right here in Chattanooga. In fact he was already a part of the TFP reporter team.
It’s tough to get most people in a newsroom to agree on much, but one common belief for everyone who has worked with David Cobb is that he is one of the brightest, most promising young reporters around, and we’re extremely excited to have him taking over the UT beat. David has covered everything from outdoors and the police beat to higher education and general metro assignments in nearly two years of working at the TFP, but he admitted to always keeping an eye on the UT sports beat, just in case it came open.
We announced the move on social media several days ago but wanted to be sure that you, our print readers, were informed of the transition. Today is Patrick’s last official day of covering the beat, and David will be in charge of all news coming from the Knoxville campus beginning with Sunday’s edition.
“This is my dream job and I couldn’t be more excited to get started,” he said on a recent trip we took to Knoxville. “I feel like it’s what I’ve been working toward my whole career. I’ve just always loved watching and following sports, and on a scale of 1 to 10 I’d say my excitement level for this opportunity is about a 12.”
Like Patrick, David is a Memphis native and Tennessee grad who grew up following UT athletics and understands the importance of covering our most widely read sports beat. He paid his dues with a variety of other media outlets, beginning with four years of writing for the Beacon, the UT student newspaper, where he covered Lady Vols volleyball and basketball and later football and men’s basketball.
He also worked for the Maryville Daily Times and the Knoxville News-Sentinel and wrote for MLB.com, covering the St. Louis Cardinals for a season before being hired by the TFP.
David has proven himself to be a bulldog on news stories with an eye for storylines outside the box, and he’s eager to cover not only the football and men’s basketball programs, but Lady Vols basketball, softball and baseball as well as keeping an eye out for any Chattanooga-area athletes involved in other sports.
Besides his daily stories in print and online, David will be tweeting observations from practice, games or as news happens, and you can follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb for those immediate updates. He’ll also oversee the Times Free Press Vols Facebook page – Facebook.com/Volsupdate – with stories, photos, videos and Facebook live updates.
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.