College Football

Tennessee Vols Morning Report: AD Search Update, Micah Abernathy, Recruiting

Updated Mar. 5, 2020 1:27 a.m. ET

Fansided, Caleb Calhoun/FanSided via All for Tennessee

The Tennessee Vols athletic director search, Micah Abernathy’s leadership role, and recruiting lead the Volunteers news for Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2017.

We are two days away from swearing in a new president of the United States of America, and the Tennessee Vols are in the process of filling numerous new positions within the athletic department.

That stretches from administrative positions down to roles for football assistants.

As we get set to bring you the news on Rocky Top for today, we have new information on updates on one of those searches.

Other news includes a new SEC leadership role along with recruiting updates.

Coming off of a bad basketball loss Tuesday night, there’s mostly football news to bring you today.

But let’s start with the AD search.

UT waiting until March to make AD hire? – WBIR

Two days after Phillip Fulmer emerged as the leading candidate to be the Tennessee Vols athletic director, more reports surfaced that it could take longer than fans want to name the new leader in the position. Chris Low told WBIR they will go through the process.

“The caveat here is the chancellor, Beverley Davenport, is new, so I think that’s probably one of the reasons they’re not further along. But I think once you get into February, you got all the month of February, then March. I think that’s plenty of time to get someone hired.”

Fulmer and UT-Chattanooga AD David Blackburn are believed to be in the running for the position but Low thinks other names could emerge as well.

Micah Abernathy named to SEC student-leadership council – UTSports

Abernathy is part of a council that includes one representative from each school. The descendant of Civil Rights Icon Ralph Abernathy just had a pretty solid sophomore season at safety and has a great future with the Tennessee Vols. This could be a sign of how vocal of a leader he is becoming for the football team.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey introduced new Student-Athlete Leadership Councils in 2016 for the sports of football and men’s and women’s basketball in which, in addition to the conference’s longstanding Student-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC), provide student-athletes with additional opportunities to engage with campus leaders and conference office staff.

Key uncommitted targets for Tennessee Vols 2017 recruiting class – Ryan Green, Gridiron Now

Butch Jones has a lot of work to do for the Tennessee Vols in the closing weeks of this recruiting period if he is going to keep them at the level he wants to keep them at. With lots of turnover, he has to bring real talent into the program for this class, so the work is not done.

With 27 commitments in its 2017 recruiting class, Tennessee has the most of any school in the SEC. But that doesn’t mean the Vols’ work in this recruiting cycle is over.

Tennessee is still waiting on a handful of uncommitted prospects to make decisions — prospects who could put Tennessee’s class in the top 10 nationally.

Tennessee Vols Morning Report: AD Search Update, Micah Abernathy, Recruiting

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