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Things were just a little too quiet around Knoxville, huh? The University of Tennessee has made the move to fire Chancellor Beverly Davenport, according to Jimmy Hyams of WNML.
BREAKING NEWS: Sources: UT chancellor Beverly Davenport has been fired by Dr. Joe DiPietro. She was hired Dec. 15, effective Feb. 15. She made the controversial hire of John Currie as athletic director, then fired him Dec. 1 and hired Phillip
— Jimmy Hyams (@JimmyHyams) May 2, 2018
Fulmer as AD.
As Hyams points out, Davenport was responsible for the hiring of former athletics director John Currie. Tennessee’s football season didn’t go according to plan, forcing Currie to make the decision to fire Butch Jones on November 12th. We all know what happened from there.
A botched coaching search was enough for Davenport to pull the plug on Currie. She appointed Phillip Fulmer to the AD position shortly after. From there, Fulmer hired Jeremy Pruitt and everything has been fairly smooth since.
Until today, reportedly.
If Davenport was fired, that will mean Tennessee will have its 17th leadership change in a position of major power, as Chris Low points out. It would be hard to build any sort of program with that kind of turnover at the top.
I will give you one better: Over the last decade, Tennessee has had 16 different presidents/chancellors/athletic directors/head football coaches. https://t.co/CF8yhSu4Js
— Chris Low (@ClowESPN) April 25, 2018
Everything about this move seems bizarre, considering the fact of how well things seemed to be going since Fulmer took over as athletics director.
This post will be updated with any new details that emerge.
Update: Per Trey Wallace, Tennessee is working on a statement.
Speaking with the UTK President’s office, they tell me “they can not confirm or deny this & we are working on a statement”. There have been rumblings since Sunday about Davenport but it seems the office is now scrambling. #Tennessee
— Trey Wallace (@TreyW_SEC) May 2, 2018
Update: John Brice confirms.
Truth; just was informed it was done earlier this week but just now broke
— John Brice (@JohnDBrice1) May 2, 2018
Update: Now we have a statement from the University, which confirms the reports. However, Davenport will remain with the school as a member of the faculty in the College of Communication and Information.
.@UTKnoxville and UT President Joe DiPietro announces Chancellor Beverly Davenport will end her appointment on July 1. She will become a member of the faculty in the college of communication and information. https://t.co/FN1FxTNPPN pic.twitter.com/sh9BsL2IWY
— Louis Fernandez Jr (@LouisWBIR) May 2, 2018