Danny White: The Tennessee fanbase 'is bigger and more powerful than I realized'

It wasn’t Tennessee football’s seven wins in Year 1 under Josh Heupel or even the magical 11-win season a year ago. Instead, what caught the eye of athletic director Danny White, was all the moments along the way.

“A lot of what we have done,” White told Volquest’s Brent Hubbs last week, “I could’ve told you we were going to do it before I got here. I couldn’t have told you though how strong the fan base would respond to it. 

“For us to be sold out in baseball, softball, to be sold out in Neyland Stadium when everyone around the country is talking about downsizing, that’s just crazy. The fan support and the scale of our fanbase is bigger and more powerful than I realized.”

Neyland Stadium season tickets sold out at 70,500

Tennessee announced in May that season tickets for Neyland Stadium were sold out, after selling 70,500. 

The initial goal set by White was to sell 61,00 season tickets in time for the 2023 season. The Vols also announced in May a 96-percent season-ticket renewal rate and over 9,000 new season tickets sold for this season.

It’s only the second time in the last 22 seasons that season tickets have been sold out at Neyland. UT also sold its entire season-ticket inventory in August 2016.

It’s not just football, though. The Tennessee men’s and women’s basketball programs both reached the Sweet 16 in their respective NCAA Tournaments. Both the Tennessee baseball and Tennessee softball programs advanced to the College World Series, too.

The success across the athletic department led the Vols to stake their claim as an “everything school.”

Yet White is only two and a half years on the job, after being hired in January 2021 to replace Phillip Fulmer, who stepped down after the Tennessee football staff was fired for recruiting violations that occurred under Jeremy Pruitt. 

“I thought it was a good job or I wouldn’t have come,” White said. “I was really interested in the rebuild as I said and was excited about the prospect of building it with the tradition and all of that.”

The rebuild has accelerated faster than anyone could have expected.

Tennessee football’s 11 wins last season were most since 2001

Tennessee football’s 11 wins last season were the most for the Vols since 2001. They beat Florida and Alabama at Neyland Stadium and beat LSU 40-13 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge. 

They were ranked No. 1 in the first College Football Playoff Top 25 of the season in November, had a Heisman Trophy candidate in quarterback Hendon Hooker, and went to their first New Years Six Bowl Game in the CFP era, beating Clemson 31-14 in the Orange Bowl in December. 

“This year there have been more moments,” White said, when asked when he realized the Tennessee job might be better than he expected at the time he was hired. “Obviously you go to a game and it’s packed and it’s loud. We all see how great that is. 

“National television celebrated our stadium environment and how many people were there.” 

For White, though, it’s other moments — more quite moments — that make the realization even more obvious.

“It’s more about sitting in a board room and getting reports back from our CFO that we are going to hit a budget number this year,” White said, “that we thought it would take five years to get to. 

“We talked about when I first got here we were in the $140’s (millions) in budget and we are going to try and chase the $200-million budget schools and there’s only a handful of them in the country and we are catching them very, very quickly. 

“When I see the season ticket sales, the fundraising numbers,” White continued, “the amount of new donors we have been able to get in such a quick time period. Doing almost identical things that we did at my last stop which worked there and is why we are doing it. But it’s pretty impressive.”