3 reasons Tennessee's Danny White is the best athletic director in college athletics
Tennessee Volunteers athletic director Danny White has been thriving long before his time with the Vols, but has sustained success as an athletic director in Knoxville since his arrival in 2021. During his time with the Vols, not only has the football program been on the rise, but other sports are either sustaining success, or on the rise as well.
During his time at Tennessee, White’s two most popular hires have been head football coach, Josh Heupel and head women’s basketball coach, Kellie Harper. However, White’s success started way before his time in Knoxville, and it needs to be acknowledged.
Three reason’s Tennessee’s Danny White trumps all other athletic directors
1. University of Buffalo Hires
Before arriving in Knoxville however, many are not aware that White’s first stop as head athletic director came at the University of Buffalo from 2012 t0 2015. During his time with the Bulls, White hired now Alabama Crimson Tide coach, Nate Oats to the same position, as well as current Kansas Jayhawks head coach, Lance Leipold.
2. UCF Knights Hires
Although White exited shortly after the two hires, White clearly showed he had a keen eye towards head coaching hires, which continued during his time at UCF where he was from 2015 to 2015-2021. White’s most well-known hires during his time with the Knights were head football coaches Scott Frost and Josh Heupel.
During their tenures as head coaches for the Knights, they had a combined record of 47-1. While many know Heupel solely for his days as head coach at Tennessee, the 28-8 record he put in in three seasons as head coach of the Knight is worth pointing out not only as a success of his own, but another feather in the cap of White’s that goes unnoticed.
Less popular, but equally as impressive for White during his time with the Knights was the hire of head men’s basketball coach, Johnny Dawkins who remains in seat with the club today. During the time White was at UCF, Dawkins propelled the then AAC Knights to a 24-9 season and a second round NCAA Tournament appearance.
3. Danny White’s ability to retain coaching talent at Tennessee
During his time in Knoxville, not only is it worth praising Knight for the hires of Heupel and Harper, but the retention of head baseball coach, Tony Vitello and head men’s basketball coach, Rick Barnes.
Vitello has been in seat with the Vols since 2018 and has seen a meteoric rise in popularity due to the teams on-field success over the last few years. Inevitably, that led to speculation of Vitello potentially being poached for other programs. To-date, that has not happened. The capability of White to help with keeping Vitello in-seat led the Vols to a 2024 College Baseball National Championship which arguably would not have happened if he was not still with the club.
White and Vitello made further headlines after the conclusion of the season when Vitello was signed to a record-setting five-year $3 million dollar per year contract, making Vitello the highest paid baseball coach in NCAA history.
On the basketball side, Barnes has been with the Vols for 10 years now, winning 25 games or more in each season since White’s arrival as athletic director. Barnes had achieved only two seasons of 25 wins or more in the six years prior.
All of these not so obvious reasons are big reasons why White is worthy of being seen as the best athletic director at the division one level. And as long as he is at the SEC school on rocky top, keep your eyes peeled not only on White, but Volunteer athletics programs as a whole for years to come.