Tennessee Vols AD Danny White is catching some heat lately, but he deserves a lot of praise for one important offseason decision
Tennessee Volunteers athletic director Danny White is entering his sixth year on Rocky Top. White replaced Phillip Fulmer as Tennessee’s athletic director in early 2021 in the midst of the Jeremy Pruitt recruiting scandal.
Tennessee Vols athletic director Danny White hasn’t faced a lot of pushback from fans during his time on Rocky Top, but there’s been some light criticism over the last six to eight months.
White caught some heat over Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello’s decision to leave for MLB last October. He’s also been criticized for the decision to keep Lady Vols head coach Kim Caldwell after one of the worst seasons in the last four decades. And White has also heard some complaints about the new entertainment district planned for the area around Neyland Stadium.
The criticism is mostly fair — fans have a voice that matters — though I’m not sure I agree with the Vitello criticism (I truly believe the chance to manage in the big leagues was something Vitello truly couldn’t turn down, regardless of a good or bad relationship with White). And I can understand giving Caldwell another season after a year that was an outlier in her career. But either way, fans have the right to disagree with those decisions.
White has done a lot good things recently at Tennessee, too.
And one of those “good things” isn’t getting nearly enough praise this offseason.
Danny White deserves credit for making sure Rick Barnes and Tennessee basketball had plenty of money to spend in the transfer portal
Rick Barnes and the Tennessee basketball program were extremely aggressive in the NCAA transfer portal this offseason.
The Vols have landed seven transfer additions, including Wake Forest transfer guard Juke Harris, who is reportedly set to earn around $4 million to play for Tennessee.
According to On3’s Pete Nakos, the price for the Vols’ roster is currently at $18 million, and it could climb to north of $20 million as Tennessee still has a spot to fill.
White was proactive this offseason in making sure that Barnes had the resources to build a Final Four-caliber roster.
“We all want it,” said White last week when asked about giving Barnes the necessary resources to build a Final Four team. “He wants it. He’s so competitive. I’ve been working with Rick for, this was my fifth season. I had half of a season when I first got here in January of 2021. So I guess maybe this is my sixth season And the way he commands his team, talks about winning the national championship in November, in December, in January, he wants to win the whole thing and we’re going to support him any way we can.
“He’s just built an unbelievable program for us — the best basketball coach we’ve ever had. And three Elite Eights is so hard to do. Four straight Sweet 16s is so hard to do. And I’m excited about what he’s putting together for next year.”
Not every coach in college basketball is getting that same kind of support.
Tennessee spent $8.5 million on its roster (per On3’s Pete Nakos). Increasing the budget by $10 million is an incredible show of support by White and the UT athletic department.
Not every decision that White is going to make will be popular. And not every decision he makes will work out — no one bats 1.000 as an athletic director — but I think it’s safe to say that White has accomplished way more good than bad during his time in Knoxville.