While the Tennessee Volunteers have a new athletic director in Danny White (seen at center above during a Tennessee women’s basketball game Thursday) and a new head football coach in Josh Heupel (who previously coached UCF’s football team while White was the AD there), there’s still some drama around the program. On Friday, Banner Society’s Steven Godfrey reported that Tennessee sent out an internal memo announcing an investigation into leaks during the coaching search:
https://twitter.com/38Godfrey/status/1355272123951042561
A couple of hours later, though, White responded on Twitter and said he’s not conducting an investigation.
https://twitter.com/AD_DannyWhite/status/1355288453370564610
It’s important to note that White’s comments here are not directly refuting Godfrey’s report. Godfrey didn’t say that White sent this memo, or that he was involved in any way. And it’s absolutely possible that other people in the athletic department decided to launch a leak investigation on their own. But it’s still notable to see an athletic director publicly comment on a report like this.
And if White actually backs that comment up, that’s a smart approach; leak investigations tend to be overblown and not accomplish much other than potentially alienating employees, and most sports businesses would probably be better off just recognizing that leaks to the media are going to happen. There are many more notable issues for Tennessee’s athletic department to look at than leak investigation; here’s hoping White keeps his stated focus on making the school better rather than investigating leaks.
[Danny White on Twitter]
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.