Tag: AD

Tennessee QB to transfer – reports

Tennessee back-up quarterback Riley Ferguson isn’t expected to return to Knoxville, his coach Butch Jones has said. “As of right now, based on our recent conversations, we do not anticipate that he will be a member of our football family moving forward,” Jones told the News Sentinel. No-one really knows why Ferguson is planning to leave – aside from the fact that it may be something to do with him wanting to be closer to home – but there is a feeling that his departure could cause Jones a headache, particularly with there only being three quarterbacks on the roster – senior Justin Worley, and sophomores Joshua Dobbs and Nathan Peterman.  

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Leading Tennessee WR takes leave of absence

Tennessee wide receiver Alton ‘Pig’ Howard has taken a leave of absence and won’t play in the spring practice period with the team, say reports coming out of Knoxville. The News Sentinel-owned GoVolsExtra  site said “Howard has been away from the team due to “personal reasons” and his long-term future with the Vols had not yet been decided.” Howard had 44 receptions and 3 TDs in 2013, which led the offense-light Volunteers. He also had 388 receiving yards. He is thought to be the Vols No.2 receiver behind Marquez North coming into the Spring. BOTTOM LINE: This isn’t going to make the Vols’ already-tough schedule any easier. Howard may well return for the Spring, but it’s looking increasingly unlikely. Over to

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Tennessee comes in with HUGE recruiting haul

After years of being terrible, Tennessee head coach Butch Jones has come in with just what the doctors in Knoxville ordered: A monster haul. By the end of National Signing Day, 32 players had signed up to be Volunteers (yeah, you read that right), much to even the biggest UT bloggers, who titled their National Signing Day post: “Where did all these bricks come from?” The answer is that Tennessee kicked butt and got signings in pretty early – including shoring up their defense with some excellent recruits. The biggest signings of these was safety Todd Kelly (59 on ESPN’s Top 300 list), OLB Dillon Bates (105), and DE Dewayne Hendrix (176). On the offensive side – and something that

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Tennessee’s head of football operations steps down

Brad Pendergrass, Tennessee’s head of football operations, has stepped down – only two days before National Signing Day. In a release, Pendergrass said: “It is with a heavy heart that I have decided to resign from my position on the football staff here at Tennessee…I am very appreciative of the experiences this great university has afforded me, and I look forward to watching the successes that lie ahead on many fronts. I would like to thank [Tennessee AD] Dave Hart, Butch Jones, and many others for their support and advice in this decision, and I look forward to new opportunities for professional and personal growth.” Pendergrass was a UT grad before working at Tennessee for 10 seasons, leaving for the

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Alabama appoints new athletic director

Alabama has appointed Bill Battle as the new Alabama athletic director after Mal Moore had to retire for health reasons. Battle, who played for Bear Bryant in 1961, then went onto coach as a graduate assistant at Oklahoma and the US Military Academy, before going to Tennessee as an assistant before graduating to head coach in 1970, where he was relatively successful, going 59-22-2 in Knoxville. After leaving there, he became quite the entrepreneur, starting up the Collegiate Licensing Company, where he was CEO until 2010. His first client? The University of Alabama. Alabama coach Nick Saban called Battle a “First class person and leader” , and invited him to practice, according to reports.  

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