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American Idol Kris Allen at Citadel Radio Center
American Idol Kris Allen began his day making the rounds at local radio stations, including B98.5.
KNOXVILLE - Television news cameras were planted all around the south end of Neyland Stadium in anticipation of a moment more than 100 days in the making.
Sprinkled around the cameras in the shadow of the massive structure were dozens of smartphone-wielding Tennessee fans who had stopped to document the moment to their own audiences on social media.
More than 100 days after Butch Jones was fired as Tennessee's football coach, the image of him with arms folded finally came sliding off the Neyland Stadium video board late Monday morning.
It was a belated purging of another forgettable era of Tennessee football. By late afternoon, the image of Jones had been replaced with an image of former Volunteers linebacker star Al Wilson, who was a defensive leader on the 1998 national championship team.
A crew of workers standing on a swing stage suspended from the top of the video board performed the job and lent perspective to just how large the images on the video board are.
One worker appeared to be roughly the size of Jones' nose in the image as the two were seen next to each other.
The full job was expected to last a few more days as Tennessee replaces all three images - not just the one of its former coach that had made fans furious with its continued presence nearly four months after he was fired. Until Monday, the images were of Jones, Robert Neyland and Reggie White.
New on the board will be images of Wilson and former tight end Jason Witten and a fresh image of Neyland, according to media reports.
When the image of Jones was placed on the video board in October of 2014, his record at Tennessee was just 7-9. But he was in the process of assembling a 2015 recruiting class that ultimately was ranked fourth in the country by 247Sports. He finished his time at Tennessee with a record of 34-27.
Noticeably absent from the new images going on the video board is new Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt, who was hired in December to replace Jones.
Perhaps Tennessee officials decided this time that it's best to wait and see what the lasting legacy of a football figure will be before gloriously enshrining him on what is perhaps the most recognizable structure in the state.
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.