University of Tennessee students support firing of John Currie

University of Tennessee students reacted to initial reports that Athletic Director John Currie had been fired Friday by saying they support the decision. 

More:John Currie out as AD, Phillip Fulmer takes charge

"He kinda messed up the whole coaching situation when he hired (Greg) Schiano and then listened to the students' protests and had to take it back," said sophomore John Robertson, referring to the unraveling of Currie's job offer to Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano after backlash from fans on Sunday.

Many raised concerns on social media over Schiano's time as an assistant coach at Penn State and how much he knew about child sex offenses perpetrated by Jerry Sandusky.

Currie, who was hired by UT Knoxville Chancellor Beverly Davenport in April, was reportedly fired Friday after a week of let-downs in the search for a new head football coach.  

Read more: John Currie: A timeline of the former Tennessee athletic director's tenure

Ryan Robinson, a spokesman for the chancellor, told the USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee that he "couldn't comment on anything" Friday morning. A news conference is scheduled for 4 p.m. EST at UT.

Meanwhile, students on campus had painted "The Rock" to read "Welcome to the Tennessee Browns," a reference to the Haslam family's ownership of the Cleveland Browns football team. 

The Haslams are also prominent donors at UT and there has been speculation about how much they've been involved in the coaching search. 

Several students Friday said they support Currie being fired.

"There wasn't much luck with finding a new coach, so something had to be done," said Jacob Binkley, a freshman. 

"I don't know a lot about football, but from what I hear from family members and stuff, I think it was the right move," said Hannah Crawford, a junior. 

Crawford said she supports Davenport and that uncertainty around the future of the athletics program is not necessarily indicative of problems across the administration. 

"I like Beverly Davenport," Crawford said. "I'm not sure about her involvement in the sports program, but I think she's done a lot of good for the school as a whole. I think she's an awesome lady." 

"I support it," said Mac Brower, also a freshman. "I’m glad he got fired. Hopefully, we’ll pull in somebody that knows how to look for a better coach, like Phil Fulmer or somebody."

Fulmer, a former head coach at UT, was rumored to have been in consideration for the athletic director's job before Currie was hired. UT has never released the names of candidates for the job. 

Currie's reported firing comes after a week of misses in the search for a head coach to replace the fired Butch Jones. 

"I think he didn’t have a lot of support from the fan base and a lot of the fans weren’t agreeing with what he was doing or the coaches he was going after and it led to him getting fired in the end," Brower said. 

Some students said they were surprised by how quickly a decision was made, given that Currie has only been on the job eight months.

"He wasn’t here for very long, so I don’t know if that was the best idea," said Katelin Hunt, a freshman. "They didn’t give him a shot. I know a lot of coaches turned us down, but I don’t know if that was really his fault or if he was looking for the wrong people. I don’t really know.

"It could go either way as to whether it was a good choice, because now we don’t have an athletic director or a head coach and we need to find two positions," she said.