Report: Tennessee Wants to Dismiss John Currie with Cause over 'Insubordination'

A disastrous coaching search led to the dismissal of Tennessee athletic director John Currie. Now the program is looking to fire him for cause.

"UT has initiated the process to dispatch Currie with cause on the heels of insubordination claims," John Brice of Gridiron Now reported.

According to David Cobb of the Times Free Press, Tennessee would owe Currie $5.1 million unless he is fired for cause.

He is reportedly owed $100,000 every month for the remainder of the contract, which comes out to about 51 months. Paired with former coach Butch Jones' buyout of about $13 million, this has been an expensive transition for a program that still hasn't hired a new coach.

Currie was initially tasked with finding Jones' replacement and appeared set to hire Greg Schiano, but the school backed out after negative responses from fans. Several notable coaches were considered for the position but instead chose to stay in their current situations.

Tennessee chose to part ways with Currie before almost immediately announcing the hire of former football coach Phillip Fulmer. Brett McMurphy of ESPN reported Fulmer had been "sabotaging" the coaching search in an effort to become the athletic director. 

Per Brice, the school officials claim Currie went against their wishes when he used a Kansas State booster's private plane to continue the coaching search instead of returning back to Knoxville.

The next step will be to prove in court this and more were enough to justify firing over insubordination.