Vols will take search slow

Tennessee hires a search firm to help find a replacement for Phillip Fulmer

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee athletics director Mike Hamilton has a long list of qualities he’s looking for in the next Tennessee coach but no timeline on which to hire him.

“I’m more concerned about hiring the right candidate than I am about how quickly we get it done. I do think that we need to be expedient and go about our business as quickly as is possible,” Hamilton said in his last public comments before hiring someone to replace Phillip Fulmer.

The right candidate, Hamilton said, is one who has a lot of integrity, is a proven leader, is good at recruiting and building a staff and can work as a salesman to promote Tennessee.

Fans have been sharing their own thoughts with the AD what they’re looking for in the next coach. It runs the gamut, but there is one general theme.

“The thing you tend to get more than anything from fans is somebody that generates excitement in the fan base,” Hamilton said. “You can define that in a lot of different ways, whether it’s offensive firepower or energy on the sidelines.”

Fulmer announced Monday that he would accept the university’s request for him to step aside at the end of the season after 17 years as coach at the request of the university. The Vols are 3-6 this season and 1-5 in the SEC.

The nationwide search for Fulmer’s replacement could mean Tennessee hires its first coach without strong ties to the program in decades. Since beloved Volunteers coach Gen. Robert R. Neyland retired in 1952 because of declining health, Tennessee coaches have had strong ties to the school or were hand-picked by athletic directors without much of a search.

This will be Hamilton’s most high-profile coaching hire in his five years as AD. Aside from Pearl, his only other significant hire to date has been Tennessee baseball coach Todd Raleigh.

Hamilton has hired Neinas Sports Service in Bolder, Colo., to assist in the search. The firm is headed up by Chuck Neinas, the former head of the College Football Association and Big XII commissioner.

Hamilton said he would ask Fulmer if he has any information he thinks will be vital to the search process but understands that the search might not be something Fulmer feels comfortable participating in.

Fulmer said when asked Tuesday about helping with the search that he was a “Tennessee guy.”

“If I’m asked if I can help Tennessee, I’m going to help Tennessee any way I can,” he said.

Hamilton said he’s received a tremendous number of e-mails from fans about the decision for Fulmer to step down, with a split response. That’s to be expected, he said.

“It’s only natural that we will have some dissent in any decision we would make. And if we had not made this decision there would have been dissent on that decision,” he said.

Hamilton said he plans to announce his coaching hire soon after it’s made, even if that decision comes before a potential bowl game, should Tennessee be invited to one.

He also said it would be up to the next coach to decide whether to retain any of Tennessee’s assistant coaches, who are contracted through June 2010, or coordinators, who are signed through June 2011.

“Obviously they’re subject to termination if a new coach doesn’t retain them,” Hamilton said. “I have good things to say about every single coach on our staff. And I’ll do anything I can to help them if they don’t end up being able to stay here.”