It didn’t take that long to hear John Currie’s name mentioned for another Power Five gig.
The former Kansas State athletic director who memorably was run out of the same position in Knoxville following a messy coaching search at Tennessee has reportedly made the cut at Maryland and will be interviewed as one of three finalists at the school. Per the Baltimore Sun’s Don Markus:
Hearing that Maryland will be interviewing three finalists - Temple AD Patrick Kraft, former Tennessee AD John Currie and acting Terp AD Damon Evans - to replace Kevin Anderson.
— Don Markus (@sportsprof56) June 20, 2018
Former Terps AD Kevin Anderson had taken a six-month sabbatical late last year from the position but eventually resigned in early April to formally vacate the job. Evans has been acting as athletic director ever since Anderson’s departure and has been with the school since 2014. That figures to give him a bit of a leg up on the other two candidates and it doesn’t hurt that he also has previous AD experience from his time at Georgia from 2004 to 2010, even if the ending was not the one he wanted in Athens.
As for Currie, his name being a finalist is notable given the messy divorce he had at Tennessee that saw him earning $75,000 a month during a paid suspension that he was placed on after nearly hiring Mike Leach to become the next Vols football coach. He formally split with the university in March (with a nice $2.5 million check) and has been lecturing at various schools ever since.
It remains to be seen which direction Maryland eventually goes but it seems pretty clear that the school isn’t going for an under the radar hire given the names on their shortlist.