University of Tennessee fans would love nothing more than to lay the smackdown on athletic director John Currie.
The Vols’ AD is a very unpopular man in the Knoxville area in large part because of the fledgling football program. Tennessee has been bowl eligible just three times in its last seven seasons and just finished the worst campaign in program history.
But things somehow went from bad to worse over the weekend when the Volunteers looked poised to hire former Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano. The university was ready to announce the hiring, a decision that was met with swift and harsh backlash. Things were so bad that Tennessee backed out of the deal and still is without a coach, and it doesn’t sound like candidates are lining up to put in their names.
Then, in a puzzling statement Monday, Currie defended Schiano.
None of it sat well with Vols fans, and Currie was at the center of the social media backlash over the weekend. The vitriol carried into Monday night at WWE’s “Monday Night RAW” from Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville. Disgruntled Vols fans used a cruiserweight match during the three-hour show to air their frustrations by starting a loud “Fire Currie” chant.
We’ll go ahead and assume the gentleman in the “Rocky Top” shirt holding this “Fire John Currie” sign involved himself in the chanting, too.
No one can know for sure how or when this ultimately will end, but the bottom line is it doesn’t look good for Currie, at least not in the court of public opinion.
