He pulled off a trick as old as time. Danny White took a perceived shot at the Tennessee Vols by LSU Tigers head coach Brian Kelly and, rather than defend the concept by itself, shamed anybody else who wouldn’t embrace the concept.
For a quick recap, Kelly bragged about LSU not allegedly buying players in this new NIL era. That seemed to be a direct shot at Josh Heupel and the UT Football program, which lured offensive lineman Lance Heard away this past offseason.
White, for his part, was asked about that at the Big Orange Caravan. To be fair, Heupel was asked about it too, but White managed to give the perfect response, one that should be the model for every athletic director and coach.
“If we’re offering NIL packages and that’s a part of the equation, any one of us in our professional life would never take a job without knowing what the details of that compensation package looks like. So is it a part of their decision? It has to be. It is for every other American in any other walk of life. That doesn’t make them greedy or selfish. I think that’s a piece of the puzzle.”
That answer is very clear. White is saying that not only is it okay for the Tennessee Vols to use NIL as an advantage on the recruiting trail but that it’s something schools should be doing. His point is that the Tennessee Vols are doing right by buying players, allegedly, and LSU is mistreating them by not doing so.
Basically, White is saying that a school is wrong, and not showing the proper care for its players, if they don’t allow them to factor in NIL. This is a brilliant stroke of PR genius by White, one that makes it clear where his priorities lie.
How is Kelly, after trying to shame opposing schools, supposed to tell his players he’s looking out for them when he doesn’t support their ability to maximize their value? It’s a new day, and he clearly doesn’t seem to understand that opposing player power hurts his standing…with his players. White gets that.
Throughout history, UT’s tradition has been breaking tradition. This is the school that introduced the phone to the press box. It’s the school that embraced Title IX and integration, and it’s the school that embraced playing national games as an SEC program.
Along the way, Rocky Top lost that spirit, which led to the decade of dysfunction. However, NIL offered a golden opportunity for it to return, and the school managed to find the perfect athletic director to embrace that at just the right time.
Now, the Tennessee Vols are a program that goes on offense with their advantages. White has been prepared for this from the start, which is why he humiliated the NCAA with its potential NIL investigation. This is just further proof that they are in good hands.
