Fulmer named Vols’ AD, will lead coach search
Tennessee has turned to its past to comfort its uneasy fan base in an attempt to rescue what has been a tumultuous and embarrassing football coaching search.
The man Volunteers fans blamed for the chaos, John Currie, took the fall, as chancellor Beverly Davenport finally had had enough.
She turned things over to Phillip Fulmer, naming the Hall of Fame coach Tennessee's athletic director on Friday. Fulmer replaces Currie, who was suspended and placed on paid leave after eight months on the job.
"I think with the background that I have here and as well as we've done at different times here, with the facilities and leadership we have here, I definitely think there will be people who will be interested," said Fulmer, who coached Tennessee to the 1998 national title.
Getting any coach interested in this job has proved challenging ever since the Nov. 12 firing of Butch Jones.
Tennessee was close to hiring Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano on Sunday before that deal fell through amid a public backlash.
Reports linked Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy and Purdue's Jeff Brohm to the vacancy, but both stayed with their respective teams. North Carolina State's Dave Doeren agreed to a new five-year contract with the Wolfpack on Thursday after speaking with Tennessee officials.
Currie met Thursday with Washington State coach Mike Leach, and Davenport said she asked Currie to return to Knoxville early Thursday afternoon. It is unclear where talks with Leach stand.
Fisher to Texas A&M for $7.5M a year
Coach Jimbo Fisher is leaving Florida State for Texas A&M — four years after leading the Seminoles to the national title — to join a school that reportedly will pay him $7.5 million a year for the next decade.
Fisher leaves Florida State after going 83-23 in eight seasons. Besides the national championship, he also led the Seminoles to three Atlantic Coast Conference titles. At Texas A&M, he will replace Kevin Sumlin, who was fired last weekend after going 51-26 in six seasons.
USC tops Stanford in Pac-12 title game
Sam Darnold threw for 325 yards and two touchdowns and engineered a 99-yard drive in the fourth quarter to lead No. 11 Southern California over No. 14 Stanford 31-28 in the Pac-12 championship game in Santa Clara, California.
Darnold threw touchdown passes to Michael Pittman Jr. and Tyler Vaughns to stake the Trojans (11-2) to a 17-7 lead. He then delivered one of the biggest plays of the game when he stepped up to avoid pressure in the end zone before connecting on a 54-yard pass to Pittman to spark the key touchdown drive in the fourth that put USC up 31-21. Stanford fell to 9-4.