Wiedmer: Did UT rebuff cost Blackburn his UTC job?

"When it comes to Tuesday's shocking news that David Blackburn had resigned from his position as the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga athletics director, a lot of folks want there to be a smoking gun. Malfeasance perhaps. Maybe a DUI. Insubordination. Even an undisclosed illness, though hopefully one that's curable rather than terminal. Something. Anything.

But what if it's a lot less dramatic than that?

What if Blackburn, his heart still broken by not getting his dream job as the University of Tennessee AD — the post that went to John Currie, once a UT athletic department contemporary of Blackburn — just doesn't have the will or energy to continue as the boss of the Mocs?

Call it depression. Call it stagnation. Call it sad and tragic and regrettable for all concerned. Even call it crazy and without merit.

But at least consider it for a moment or two as a possible alternative explanation to a darker, more sinister scenario.

After all, Blackburn's UT-Knoxville rebuff wasn't a job rejection suffered behind closed doors, playing out under complete anonymity save a whisper here or a rumor there.

This was a rejection pretty much tried in the court of public opinion, running its course not in days, but in months, filling up message boards, talk radio and social media for weeks on end, and not all of it supportive of Blackburn.

In the beginning, way back in late September, he seemed to be the frontrunner for the UT job. Then, by November, he didn't. Then, Christmas drawing near, he seemed to have it again. Then his old coaching boss, Phillip Fulmer, got involved and Blackburn's Big Orange dreams were apparently done. But by then it was January, more than 90 days after the rumor mill had begun and still at least 45 days from Currie's hiring.

The UT brass will rightly say this was all unofficial, and mostly without merit, and that the serious searching didn't begin until late January at the earliest, or possibly not until new chancellor Beverly Davenport took over on Feb. 15th of this year.

Though few believed Blackburn was a serious contender by then, having your name bandied about from September through Valentine's Day is a long time to twist in the wind. Your emotions can understandably get the best of you. Your heart is stubbornly clinging to any sliver of hope that you might still land your dream gig in Big Orange Country. At the same time, your mind is repeatedly reminding you that you would do well to focus on the job you have just in case you don't get the job you want. The stress would make a mess of most of us."

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