Calkins: Currie's new vision for UT
New Tennessee athletic director John Currie stopped by The Commercial Appeal Friday, on the eve of his first day on the job. He talked about his vision for the athletic department, his expectations for the football program, his relationship with South Carolina basketball coach Frank Martin, and his thoughts on the future of college sports. Here are the highlights:
Q: What’s the priority as you begin? What do you hope to accomplish?
A: The consistent thing I’ve said all the time is that I want to reacquaint myself with people I used to know and get to know the people I didn’t know before, and do a lot of listening. Tennessee has been through a time of enormous change, of growth. There’s all kinds of new buildings on campus, academic buildings, new athletic buildings, the city of Knoxville has had an amazing period of development. To see what has happened in downtown Knoxville, much like Memphis which has really blossomed over the last decade. So just getting to know folks, and listening, and asking a lot of questions, and walking around. As I’ve said a number of times, the Lord gave me two ears, two eyes and one mouth for a reason.
Q: You weren’t everybody’s first choice for athletic director. How do you go about handling that, and have you spoken to Phil Fulmer since you got the job?
A: As you know, Coach Fulmer is the architect of the greatest period of Tennessee football in the modern era. He’s been an inspiration to me throughout my career and he’ll continue to be honored in all the right ways. And that’s the period of time, and the kind of accomplishments, that we want to be. That represents what we want to be, and we’re going to work hard to get back to that level.
Q: Is it odd to hear some critics say that you have a difficult personality? Do you? What do you make of that?
A: My mom thinks I’m a pretty nice guy, generally speaking. I think any time you’ve been in a position where you’ve had to make tough decisions, there will be some people who are unhappy. When we went to Kansas State, we were essentially a failed program in terms of finances and secret contracts, we had to start from scratch, rebuilding. You go through some tough situations. We always try to treat people with dignity and respect and make decisions that are based on integrity and what’s best for student-athletes and the institution. And it just kind of is what it is. We’ll continue to work hard for our student-athletes, and to support our coaches and our staff. There’s always going to be critics. I heard Condoleezza Rice speak once about criticism, and she said that as a leader, you’ve just got to buck up and take it.
Q: Since I’m on the topic, you’re getting a considerable amount of criticism this week for “running Frank Martin out of K-State.” How do you respond?
A: I know the reality of that situation. I’m proud of what Frank Martin has accomplished at South Carolina, he’s done a great job, he’s a good person, got a good family. He did a great job at K-State, I learned a lot from him and I would have loved to have continued to work with him. He made the decision to leave, which was five years ago, and that’s not really a story this week. The story is the incredible job he’s done at South Carolina.
Q: What’s your thought about where Tennessee football is right now?
A: I’m excited to get to know Coach Jones. I know Friday was Pro Day on campus and people are talking about how many NFL scouts and coaches and general managers are at Tennessee. And a number of folks have remarked to me in the last 24 hours that four or five years ago there weren’t so many. So clearly Coach Jones has done a great job of getting the program going in the right direction and I’m excited to continue to get to know him better and find out how I can support him more.
Q: What are reasonable expectations for football at Tennessee?
A: The expectations are defined by the history. Tennessee is a championship-level program and that’s where you want to get to. But one of the things I’ve learned from Coach Snyder at K-State is what you have to focus on, and that is, are we getting better today than we were yesterday? If you get away from that principal and think about where you want to get to eventually, you’re doing it wrong. We’ve got to focus on where we are today, and will we be better tomorrow, and continue to build through that process. We all know how competitive the conference is, and how competitive college football is. Who would think that Kansas State University would have the best facilities in the Big 12 conference, better than Texas? Kansas State does. The reality of it is, as universities have been able to generate more revenue, everybody has been able to build good facilities, everybody has been able to provide great academic support, and as all those things have happened around the country in all the leagues, it becomes even more competitive. I think Coach Jones is on the right trajectory.
Q: Women’s basketball hasn’t had the level of success that fans might want. Is that a concern for you?
A: I’ve enjoyed reacquainting with Coach Warlick. Had a cup of coffee with her this week in her office. Candidly, I haven’t paid a lot of attention to any Tennessee sports over the last eight years because I’ve been totally consumed with Kansas State and helping Kansas State. Certainly the legacy of that program brings enormous pressure and enormous expectations. I think she’s going to continue to do a great job. We had a recruiting class that had four players in the McDonald’s All-American game, all in double figures, so I’m excited to get to know how I can help that program.
Q: Will your success ultimately be defined by the coaches you hire and fire?
A: The reality of it is, as an athletic director, a friend of mine used to say athletic directors are never celebrated, only tolerated. The heroes are going to be our coaches and our student-athletes.
Q: There are rumors that Memphis and Tennessee may resume playing basketball in 2018. Would you like to play Memphis in basketball?
A: Any time I’m asked about scheduling in any sport, the first thing I’ve got to know is what our coach thinks is the right formula for that particular sport to have the best chance to be successful. Tennessee played all four Final Four teams, half the Sweet 16 this year. There’s some incredible history, which I feel fortunate to be a part of, in the Memphis-Tennessee thing. The city of Memphis is extremely important to the University of Tennessee, both with our campuses here, and also a lot of alumni and fans here through the years. Way back in the day, Bill Lofton at the University of Memphis and I, we were both associate ADs, and we worked together behind the scenes to kind of get Coach Cal and Coach Pearl on the same page, and get that thing done. It took a few years, but we ended up having some really incredible games, including the game, here, which is a great memory for me, when Memphis was No. 1 and Tennessee was No. 2. It was an incredible game and a great atmosphere for college basketball.
Q:How about Memphis and Tennessee in football? Memphis has historically liked to link football and basketball. Any overarching thoughts on whether Tennessee and Memphis might play in football?
A: I haven’t started yet, so I haven’t had a chance to consider that. I have enormous respect for Tom Bowen and how the program has continued to get better here. You’ve got a great coach, who replaced a great coach, so we’ll look forward to whatever needs to come down the road. But the responsibilities we have in the Southeastern Conference, where we have to play at least one game against a Power 5 school in addition to our eight conference games, and then the need to have seven games every year in Neyland Stadium, and now we’re playing a neutral-site against against Georgia Tech.
Q: Right now, you’re getting big checks from the SEC. Is that gravy train going to last for ever, or as you see different delivery systems emerging, will that change?
A: Certainly, the SEC’s innovation, and the support and passion of the fans in this region, have put the SEC in an extraordinary position. However, we all have to be vigilant and fiscally responsible as we go forward to make sure that we’re putting our institutions in the best possible position not to be vulnerable as technology continues to evolve. However, there’s been a lot of interest in this deal for 100 years now, and I believe one way or another, there’s still going to be strong interest, and one way or another we’ll figure out how to attract dollars from it, so we can, in turn, invest those dollars in the experience of our young people.
Q: Conference realignment has continued to be an issue. What’s the universe going to look like 20 years from now?
A: I have no idea. Conference realignment, since the University of Chicago left the Big 10 in 1930-whatever, it’s continued to evolve. I have certainly been kind of on the fault line of it over at K-State and in the Big 12, where you really had some unfortunate historical issues that caused tough decisions made at the wrong time, that caused some unnecessary fratricide, really, and that was an unfortunate thing for college athletics. I still think about the importance of regional rivalries and that kind of thing that were somewhat a victim of that time. The important thing for the University of Tennessee and the SEC is to continue to strengthen the integrity of our brand. We have to continue to protect the integrity of the student experience, even though we’ve got lots of money involved and ticket prices and TV and stuff, we’ve still got to remember that this whole thing revolves around young people who are getting once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get a degree, debt free, and to compete at the highest level.
Q: Does it bother you that the experience of the student-athlete seems to be very different than the experience of the average student. Or do you find that to be true or not true?
A: I’ll meet with all the student-athletes over the coming months, and one of the things we’ll talk about is that we treat our fellow students as peers, that we remember that we’re in an ecosystem with lots of people. But I don’t necessarily think that the student-athlete experience is different than a different segment of campus’s experience. There’s lots of different experiences on a campus. That’s what makes a campus so special, you’ve got the drama club, and you’ve got the people in the band, and you’ve got the fraternity house and you’ve got the football team. But the great thing is that when you have all those groups mix. That’s what makes the experience so special.
Q: Sexual assault has been an important issue at Tennessee and at campuses across the country. How will you handle it at Tennessee? How did you handle it at K-State?
A: We built a good system, and a robust system, of making sure that as soon as there is a problem, we get into the protection of the potential victim, and that we get into a process that protects the legitimacy of the process and insures that both a potential victim and a potential accused are treated fairly. Ultimately, we’ve got to make sure we do everything we can every day to protect our students.
Q: Will you bring back the Lady Vols logo and name for all women’s sports?
A: Tennessee has always been a leader in women’s athletics. I understand the history, and the emotion, and all the aspects of that particular issue, and certainly as we get into the list of stuff we have to work on, that is something that people want to know about.
Q: Whatever you decide, some people will be mad. Is that the nature of the job?
A: Decisions where there’s 100 percent agreement aren’t decisions. That’s true of a decision to hire a particular coach, or for a coach to play a particular quarterback, or anything else. And every decision you make may not turn out to be the right one. You just hope to make the decisions the right way, with the right priorities, and you live with what happens. If I wasn’t willing to make those decisions, I wouldn’t be in this job. But as we make those decisions, we’ll continue to be guided by what’s in the best interests of the university and the student-athlete.