Former Vols athletic director John Currie comments on success of Tennessee baseball under Tony Vitello

Former Tennessee Vols athletic director John Currie is most remembered in Knoxville for the botched football coaching search in late 2017 that resulted in him losing his job. 

Currie famously attempted to hire Greg Schiano to replace Butch Jones before a fan revolt stopped the hire. A bizarre few days ensued that culminated with Currie nearly hiring Mike Leach before finally getting called back to Knoxville where he learned that he was no longer the athletic director at Tennessee. 

That failed coaching search was obviously a complete disaster. And it's not a surprise that it cost Currie his job. 

But Currie's tenure on Rocky Top wasn't completely fruitless. 

A few months before the botched football coaching search, Currie hired Tony Vitello to replace Dave Serrano as the Vols' head baseball coach. 

And that move has obviously paid off massively for Tennessee. 

Currie, who is now the athletic director at Wake Forest, recently spoke to The Athletic's Joe Rexrode about the decision to hire Vitello in 2017. And he commented on the Vols' success on the diamond under Vitello over the last several years. 

The former Tennessee athletic director noted that he's happy for Vitello and for the Vols fans who have supported the program. 

“I’m happy for Tony, I’m happy for UT fans, who have been incredible in supporting him and the program...He had a great vision and plan of how he was going to win," said Currie to The Athletic this week. "And when coaches have clear expectations and can paint a picture of what they need and have the self-confidence to hire great people around them, that can be really powerful.”

Currie certainly deserves a lot of credit for hiring Vitello, who was a relatively unknown assistant coach at Arkansas at the time. 

Current Vols athletic director Danny White is responsible for creating the culture at Tennessee where Vitello is thriving. But it was Currie who lured Vitello to Knoxville seven summers ago. If Currie doesn't make that hire, Tennessee fans probably aren't celebrating a national championship this week.