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The Roanoke Times (Virginia)
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Tennessee has turned to its familiar past to comfort its uneasy fan base in an attempt to rescue what has been a tumultuous and embarrassing football coaching search.
The man Volunteer faithful blamed for the chaos: John Currie. Chancellor Beverly Davenport, who watched as the search was bungled seemingly at each turn, finally had enough.
So she turned everything over Friday to Phillip Fulmer, naming the College Football Hall of Famer Tennessee's new athletic director. Fulmer replaces Currie, who was suspended and placed on paid leave just eight months after taking the job.
The chancellor said at a that Fulmer will be Tennessee's athletic director "for the foreseeable future" and "take the reins of our search." In the meantime, the school is investigating whether it can fire Currie for cause.
"I think with the background that I have here and as well as we've done at different times here, with the facilities and leadership we have here, I definitely think there will be people that will be interested," said Fulmer, who coached Tennessee to the 1998 national title, but was later forced out of the job by the school.
Ole Miss gets 2-year bowl ban as sanction
Mississippi's football program won't participate in the postseason this year or in 2018 as part of the NCAA's sanctions levied against the school in the long-running rules violation case that included a charge of lack of institutional control.
In the latest development in the more than five-year ongoing case, the Committee on Infractions Friday came down fairly hard on Ole Miss. Most notably, the NCAA decided the one-year self-imposed postseason ban was not enough for the Rebels, who finished the regular season with a 6-6 record.
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