Skip to main content

Tennessee's claim as an 'everything school' came after a year of 'unparalleled success'

IMG_3593by:Grant Ramey•06/28/23•

GrantRamey

The first two years as Tennessee’s athletic director has been a whirlwind for Danny White. From having to hire a new football coach and staff as his first assignment on the job to the Vols billing themselves as an “everything school” after an academic year of unprecedented success. 

“It’s been special,” White said recently during an appearance on the Ramon, Kayla and Will show on 104.5-FM The Zone in Nashville, “and fun to see it happen so quick. This is really the completion of my second year here.” 

Tennessee, according to the athletic department’s own research, is the only school since 1998 to have a football team that won a BCS or New Years Six bowl game, to have men’s and women’s basketball programs reach the Sweet Sixteen and have baseball and softball programs that both advanced to their respective College World Series. 

White, hired away from Central Florida in January 2021, hired his UCF football coach, Josh Heupel, just six days after taking over as AD of the Vols. 

Heupel led Tennessee to a 7-6 record in Year 1 and a trip to the Music City Bowl, despite taking over a roster depleted by the NCAA Transfer Portal and a program with an NCAA investigation hovering over it from the Jeremy Pruitt era.

In Year 2 Heupel led the Vols to 11 wins for the first time since 2001, capped by a win over Clemson in the Orange Bowl in Miami. The season started with an 8-0 record, a No. 1 ranking the first College Football Playoff Top 25 of the season and a Heisman Trophy contender at quarterback in Hendon Hooker.

Vols had ‘across-the-board unparalleled success’ in 2022-23

“And I think about Josh and his staff, that’s an entirely new staff (since 2021),” White said, “and as you all know a football staff is a huge part of an athletic department. We’ve had some new coaches come in and have success, we’ve had some coaches that are really good that have been here a long time, that are having kind of across-the-board unparalleled success.”

Rick Barnes led the Tennessee basketball team to 25 wins and a trip the Sweet Sixteen at Madison Square Garden, before falling to Final Four-bound Florida Atlantic. Kellie Harper’s Lady Vols also won 25 games before losing to Virginia Tech in the Sweet Sixteen in Seattle. 

Tennessee baseball went to the College World Series for the second time in three years and just the sixth time in program history. The Vols won a game in Omaha for the first time since 2001 and was one of the final five teams standing before being eliminated by LSU. Tony Vitello has led the Vols to three straight Super Regional appearances, too.

Tennessee softball won the SEC regular-season championship and SEC tournament title. The Lady Vols came up one game short of reaching the championship series in the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City, beating Alabama and Oklahoma State before being eliminated after losses to Oklahoma and Florida State. 

‘This gives me a lost of excitement for the monster we can build here in Knoxville’

“Competitively, this is our best year ever … we’ve got a chance to have the highest-ever ranking (in the all-sports cup),” White said. “Winning our second ever SEC All-Sports (Championship) two years in a row, we had never done it in the 39 year history of the award.”

Tennessee in May won the SEC’s All-Sports Championship from USA Today, after the Vols and Lady Vols both finished in first in men’s and women’s athletics in the league. It was Tennessee’s second straight All-SEC Sports Championship and first time sweeping both men’s and women’s sports.

The most exciting part, White explained, is that the Vols and Lady Vols are just getting started, just like he is.

“It’s all just really exciting,” White said. “It just shows what this place is capable of, because we’re still in the very early going of rebuilding this iconic brand. There are a lot of things that are in place, whether it’s capital projects or investments in operating budgets that give competitive advantages for coaches. 

“There’s a lot of work being done that I know hasn’t even come close to maturing yet. So this gives me a lost of excitement for the monster we can build here in Knoxville.”

You may also like