It wasn’t the McDonald’s bags that got Jeremy Pruitt fired at Tennessee.
The NCAA has claimed the food bags for recruits were not full of Big Macs but big bucks instead.
No one said Alabama’s Nick Saban can sanitize every college football coach, which he was supposed to have done when Pruitt was an assistant for the Crimson Tide.
Since Pruitt was fired Jan. 18, the Vols have seen Phil Fulmer retire without a parade or even a going-away party. Danny White replaced Fulmer as athletic director, and now Josh Heupel is the new head football coach.
That’s nine days to overhaul the top of the athletic chain at a school that just a few years ago interviewed what seemed like half the former head coaches in America.
Nothing against Fulmer, but White may have been the key hire.
You may remember him as the AD at Central Florida who declared his Knights national champions after going 13-0 in 2017. He bought his players rings.
At his first news conference at Tennessee, White appealed to the media, saying he hoped he won the news conference.
He also came across as genuine.
“I’ve never worked at the big-brand place until now,” White said. “And I kind of like the fact the brand needs to be polished a little bit.”
White has been at some big places and done some big things.
He grew up with one of the most respected athletic directors in America, his dad Kevin White.
Dad finished his career at Arizona State, Notre Dame and Duke. It was thought he might become president of the NCAA, but that was before the organization decided to get away from ADs and go for academicians.
His sons never have ridden their dad’s coattails.
Michael White paid his dues before becoming head basketball coach at Florida, and Danny did the same before landing at UCF, which is called Under Construction Forever because of its continued growth.
Heupel, who guided Oklahoma to the national championship in 2000 as quarterback, was 28-8 as the Knights head coach.
He becomes the sixth Vols head coach since 2007, a period of time when the program has gone 78-82.
What Tennessee needs more than ever is stability, and the Vols are paying White $1.8 million a year for that. They’ll probably get it.
When you are quarantined with covid-19 and it is a struggle to get off the sofa just to go to the restroom, you have the choices of watching TV or reading.
Yours truly mostly read.
I’m out of quarantine, and instead of having the virus I have antibodies. My sense of smell and taste came back after four days. I still tire easily, but other than that it is all systems go.
One of the books I read — “The Vapors” by David Hill — was a loaner from my friend Jerry Webster, who grew up in Hot Springs.
At one time, The Vapors was the creme de la creme of casinos in Hot Springs, where gambling was illegal but in full view.
It is an interesting book and highly informative.
For more than three decades, Spa City was an international attraction for the hot baths, baseball, boxing, horse racing and casinos.
The casinos used to bring in $200 million a year.
Hill’s grandmother was a key figure in his book, but one thing that stuck out was how much the yearly horse racing season meant to the success of the casinos.
People would come from all over the world for the races and then a night of entertainment.
It is a good read. If you grew up in Arkansas and are of the right age, you will recognize numerous names who were instrumental in the operation of the casinos.