Black Friday at UT. Somewhere between 21 and 33 UT athletic department support personnel were terminated on the same day. Heads started to roll in the early afternoon and by the time Dave Hart was done, many longtime employees were shown the door. Hard to get an exact count though I'm hearing it was at least 21 and as high as 33 people. Can you imagine that environment on Friday? Very sad to say that long time UT Football SID John Painter was terminated. John is a wonderful man who did a great job. He will be sorely missed. Just a great guy.


Susie Treis, a long time member of UT's SID office, was also terminated. Susie is one of the great folks in life. Just a sweet lady who was a couple months away from qualifying for a higher pension due to her lengthy service @ UT. I understand merging the athletic departments and that this was inevitable but it's still a damn shame to see anybody lose their job. I'm hearing this was round one of two. So, more cuts are coming in the future. Many of those terminated were folks who worked as secretaries and other support personnel, including a long time member of the Lady Vols Athletic Department. I understand that several in Lady Vol Country are highly upset at Dave Hart over some of the terminations. I'm afraid it's going to be a long summer on the Hill.




Behind the scenes, Steve Mariucci is apparently expressing interest in the Arkansas job. Link


If I'm Arkansas, I take this opportunity to look around and smell the roses, kick some tires and see who's out there. Wouldn't it have been interesting if UT would've installed Kippy Brown as Interim Head Coach and taken their time to see what was truly out there. This is a decision you have to live with for a long time. Get it right. And if you're Arkansas, you have a nice team coming back with an offense on cruise control. Create an us against the world scenario for your players. What's the harm? Link




No offense to Buzz Peterson but he's proven he can't do this college coaching thing at many levels. Yet he's used connections and cronyism to keep getting jobs. If he can pull off this SMU scheme, it would beat all. They just ran off Matt Doherty. Word is Larry Brown is trying to talk his way in and in the process bring in Buzz to sit on the bench and be his coach in waiting. What could possibly be any worse than that?


This Lady Vol softball team is going to be a real handful in the post-season. The beat at top 25 team on a RUN RULE yesterday. Sick. Link


Mizzou is making contingency plans at QB just in case. Link



The national media will revel in this for sure. Tim Tebow booed yesterday in Yankee Stadium. Link


Rich, poor Warren Sapp is bankrupt. Link


If you're wondering how these guys run out of money, check out these homes of major league players up for sale. Link



RIP Dwayne Schintzius. Who will ever forget the tennis racket wielding students at Thompson Boling Arena? Link


Schintzius trivia: He was the first ever player shown in the first ever 'One Shining Moment' video. Here's proof. Link


Really sad story here. University of Florida students commits suicide jumping off the top of the football stadium. What a shame. Link




Final Thought:

Trent Richardson is my hero today! This is a great story! Link


Peace

Tony