(This is the second in a two-part series on Dave Hart as Tennessee’s athletic director)
When the standings for the Director’s Cup came out after the recent completion of the winter sports, former Tennessee athletic director Dave Hart probably cringed.
Tennessee is 50th in the nation, 11th among SEC schools.
No reason to brag there.
When the SEC All-Sports derby is announced in May, Tennessee will rank in the bottom half among the men and near the bottom third for men and women combined.
No reason to brag there.
For a school that once dominated the All-Sports trophy and competed at a high level in most of its sports, the last five years have bordered on being embarrassing when you consider UT’s athletic budget is about $120 million.
When Hart left in late March after five-and-a-half years as Tennessee’s athletic director, one of his primary regrets was not having more success on the field in all sports.
Under Hart’s watch, UT won three regular season championships – one in volleyball in 2011 (months after Hart was hired) and two in women’s basketball.
Women’s basketball added two more SEC tournament titles.
Out of 19 sports, with almost 100 opportunities to win a regular-season title over five-plus years, the Vols could count them on one hand.
“Sure it bothered me,’’ Hart, a self-proclaimed competitor, said during an interview on Sports Radio WNML in Knoxville, “because everywhere else I’ve been, we have won a lot of championships.’’
Hart is confident that day will come soon at Tennessee.
“I think what we have put in place is a very solid foundation, both financially and facilities wise,’’ Hart said.
Hart said he felt an “obligation’’ to give all of his coaches the resources to win.
That hasn’t always happened.
UT’s golf practice facility is “fantastic’’ but “they’re in trailers.’’
That’s right, for more than six years, UT’s golf coaches and players have used trailers for their offices. No plush clubhouse. No nice lockers. Just trailers.
“If you’re recruiting me to play golf,’’ Hart said, “and I’m visiting these other schools and they’re in really nice, functional team buildings, and I come here and you’re in a trailer, it speaks in their mind – right or wrong – the level of commitment (to golf)’’
Hart said the volleyball team struggled until it got a practice facility.
Hart said space for the rowing team is too small.
He said the tennis facilities are “outdated.’’
While he praised Thompson-Boling Arena as “one of the country’s finest (basketball) facilities,’’ he ripped the locker rooms: “You felt like you were in a time warp in the ‘80s and ‘90s.’’
Hart said he left behind some unfinished business but he has addressed many of his concerns in his three-year campaign that he is handing off to new athletic director John Currie, who assumed his new job April 1.
Hart is proud of a sports science lab UT is building, the expanded weight room for basketball, the combined men’s and women’s halls of fame, the Ray and Lucy Hand digital studio which he called “the nicest of any school in the nation.’’
“Now that the foundation is in place,’’ Hart said, “our coaches understand they have to make a difference in the area of competition, because that is the passion point for our fans.’’
Hart said his top priority when he arrived in September 2011 was to “get football healthy and there is certainly evidence that that has happened.’’
He’s done that under the guidance of Butch Jones, whom he hired Dec. 7, 2012. Jones inherited a program that had gone 2-14 in SEC play the previous two years.
Jones has recorded back-to-back nine win seasons and Tennessee is the only SEC school that has won bowl games each of the past three years. Plus, Tennessee has set a school record for football season-ticket sales the past two years, Hart said.
“Butch has done an excellent job of building the program back up,’’ Hart said. “The expectations have changed and it’s going to stay that way.
“The next step is to win the East and we have had legitimate shots at that the last two years.’’
Hart said playing neutral sites games at Bristol in 2016, Atlanta in 2017 and Charlotte in 2018 will help recruiting and allow alumni and fans to make enjoyable trips.
Hart also complimented Jones on his recruiting efforts in the midstate.
“Candidly,’’ Hart said, “we had lost Nashville as far as a presence.’’
Hart said Tennessee was not his “first rodeo’’ in terms of rebuilding an athletic department, and while there is more to be accomplished, he thinks UT is on the cusp of bringing home trophies.
“We are not there yet,’’ Hart said, “and that’s a little disappointing, certainly. But I also see the progress. I see the foundation being laid. So I feel good about that happening, that it will take place.’’
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