John Adams: UT Lettermen's Club president wants 'Tennessee guy' as AD
If you know Robbie Franklin, you wouldn't be surprised at his take on Tennessee’s search for an athletic director. He just wants a “Tennessee guy.”
Franklin is about as Tennessee as it gets. He’s currently the president of the UT Lettermen's Club, played in Tennessee’s offensive and defensive lines under Doug Dickey in the 1960s, and was an assistant football coach at UT under both Bill Battle and Johnny Majors in the 1970s.
Franklin attended Holston High School before accepting a football scholarship offer to Tennessee, where he went through one of the most grueling off-season conditioning programs in school history. He can recall those “voluntary” workouts in 1964 as though they happened a few days ago.
Storage rooms inside Neyland Stadium were cleared out so there was just enough room for agility drills, short sprints and intense physical skirmishes. Players ran up and down stadium steps (124 of them, Franklin said). Then they moved over to the Ag Pavilion for more fun.
“They would have 4-H shows there, where they would show cows, horses and pigs,” Franklin said.
The Vols would have to deal with what was left behind.
“They’d scoop the poop up from the sawdust,” he said. “But there still would be cow dung there at the bottom.
“Boils were coming up on players’ backs. So we stopped working out there after a month.”
The other offseason workouts continued in what was Dickey’s first year as UT’s coach. And they were cleverly advertised as a voluntary fitness program available to all students, just in case the NCAA got nosey.
“We had two or three non-football players come out,” Franklin said. “They didn’t come back after the first day.
“The drills were designed to see who was committed to playing football at Tennessee. I would say we lost around 25 players that were on scholarship.”
But Franklin stuck it out, playing through the 1966 season and becoming part of Dickey’s grand turnaround. After a 4-5-1 start, the Vols went 42-10-3 in Dickey’s last five seasons at Tennessee.
That background, more so than Franklin’s presidential status with the T-Club, helps you understand how much Tennessee football means to him, and how much the athletic director hire matters.
He said the club wouldn’t endorse anyone. However, he’s confident he’s speaking for the group when he says there needs to be a “Tennessee guy” in that position.
He would be happy if UT hired David Blackburn, a UT grad and former UT sports administrator, or former Tennessee player and coach Phillip Fulmer. Both are candidates.
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“I would love to see either one as athletic director,” Franklin said. “But if they don’t hire a Tennessee graduate, I hope they don’t hire a graduate from another SEC school.”
Outgoing athletic director Dave Hart is an Alabama graduate. And while Franklin believes “Hart is a good man,” he also believes his Alabama background was difficult to overcome, just as former Alabama player Bill Battle’s was when he was hired as UT’s football coach.
“Any mistake was going to be held against them because of that,” Franklin said.
Rivalry side, he appreciates how Alabama handles its business, pointing out that after Battle recently announced he was stepping down as athletic director, Alabama quickly had his successor in place.
UT has known since August that Hart would retire but still hasn’t interviewed a candidate.
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“To me, it indicates how at the chancellor’s level they view the football program,” Franklin said. “The Alabama administration understands how important the football program is to the university.”
John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com. Follow him on Twitter: @JohnAdamsKNS.
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