Tennessee introduced Danny White as athletic director Friday.
White arrives in Tennessee through the University of Central Florida.
During White’s introductory press conference, he discussed his process in search of the next Tennessee football coach.
“Ideally, in the age of social media and everything, it starts and ends with student-athletes,” White said. “I’ve been able to achieve that in the three searches I’ve done in football.”
As Buffalo’s athletic director, White hired Lance Leipold outside of his alma mater, Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he won six NCAA Division III national championships (2007, 2009-2011, 2013-2014). .
White hired Scott Frost as head coach at UCF.
When Frost left for the same position at his alma mater, Nebraska, after the 13-0 2017 season, White hired Josh Heupel. Heupel came to UCF from Missouri as the Tigers offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
White mentioned that he wants to be in communication with his student-athletes first when it comes to hiring a head coach.
“I want them to be the first to find out who their new coach is,” White said. “What happens in between, a lot happens. I will do a lot of homework. I spent a lot of time researching and calling. I’m lucky to have a pretty significant network in intercollegiate athletics and I realize it’s probably because of my way of growing up. I can get a candidate’s opinion from people and really understand who they are from the character’s point of view. I don’t even want to interview anyone if I have questions about that.
“We need to make sure that the person we present to run our program does it the right way, will do well for these kids, and will have an aggressive approach to getting us highly competitive. I don’t know if I can offer more details than that’s because it’s a pretty fluid situation. “