Tennessee fires the university chancellor who hired the athletic director who led one of the ugliest coach searches ever

Tennessee fired university chancellor Beverly Davenport, the school announced Wednesday. The school’s president and Davenport’s boss, Joe DiPietro, ripped her leadership of the university in the letter he sent to inform her of her firing.

Tennessee named Davenport its chancellor in December 2016. Weeks later, she hired Kansas State athletic director John Currie to do the same job for the Vols. Currie decided in November 2017 to fire head football coach Butch Jones, setting off a long chain of events.

If there’s ever been a more bananas coaching search, it’s hard to think of it. Currie nearly hired Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano to replace Jones, but that deal fell apart after Vols fans shouted it down for a multitude of reasons. After brief dalliances with Washington State’s Mike Leach, NC State’s Dave Doeren, and others, Currie lost his job.

Former coach Phillip Fulmer replaced him and eventually hired Alabama defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt, a solid pick even if the coach absolutely hated his first UT spring game.

Public records later revealed that Davenport stepped into the coaching search while Currie was in Los Angeles visiting with potential hire Leach on Nov. 30. Davenport called Currie back to Knoxville and suspended him at a meeting the next morning. Tennessee later announced a settlement with Currie that paid him $2.5 million of the roughly $5.5 million the Vols were slated to pay him through the expiration of his contract in 2022.

This kind of turnover is a bit much, even for the Vols.

Vols fans are already ready for the next search.