John Adams: How about a 'Carolina guy' as Tennessee AD?

Tennessee’s search for an athletic director might have entered the Carolina Phase.

Phase 1 was the Tennessee Phase. You either favored Chattanooga athletic director David Blackburn or former Tennessee football coach Phillip Fulmer.

Both met with the Turnkey search firm, which is being paid handsomely to head up the hiring process. However, more than a week later, little has come of those meetings.

In fact, I have heard more about a couple of Carolina-based sports executives.

One is North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham, who took on the challenges of the program’s academic scandal when he was hired in 2011. He also was an athletic director at Tulsa and Ball State.

His resume was strong enough to get Florida’s attention when it sought a replacement for Jeremy Foley, regarded by many as the nation’s premier athletic director. Some thought Cunningham was a surefire Gator late last summer before he backed out as a candidate.

It shouldn’t trouble Tennessee fans that Cunningham currently heads up a “basketball school.” The Tar Heels have averaged eight victories per season since Cunningham hired Larry Fedora as his football coach after the 2011 season.

At Tulsa, Cunningham hired Todd Graham, who led the Golden Hurricane to three 10-win seasons in four years before leaving for Arizona State.

And there is plenty more football in Cunningham’s background. He has a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Notre Dame, where he was a longtime associate athletic director. Of course, given those ties, his career goal might be the athletic director’s job at his alma mater.

Danny Morrison, the former president of the Carolina Panthers, also has been mentioned as a person of interest in UT’s AD search. He can’t match Cunningham’s experience as a college administrator. But an academician like new UT chancellor Beverly Davenport might find his resume appealing.

He graduated with honors in mathematics from Wofford College. He also has a master’s degree from North Carolina and a doctorate from South Carolina.

When Morrison stepped down as the Panthers’ president earlier this month, he said he wanted to pursue other endeavors, “particularly on the college level.”

Morrison was an athletic director for four years at TCU before being hired by the Panthers. He also was an athletic director and a senior vice-president at Wofford. And he is a former Southern Conference commissioner.

He ran the Panthers’ business operation but also was lauded for his people skills. He likely would excel in an interview.

In speculating on Tennessee AD candidates, you can’t assume that whomever UT likes will like UT back. This job is a challenging one, and the way UT has conducted business in recent years might scare off some candidates.

If you were seriously considering the job, it would make sense to have a private conversation with Hart and Mike Hamilton, who preceded Hart as Tennessee’s athletic director. Wonder what they would say in a confidential conversation about the inner workings of the program and the challenge of appeasing the most prominent Tennessee boosters?

At least, Blackburn and Fulmer would know what they were getting into. And you wouldn’t have to worry about them leaving for Notre Dame.

John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com. Follow him at: Twitter.com/johnadamskns.