Pearl Update: Hamilton Trusts His Coach

Tennessee AD Mike Hamilton had an interview with WVLT-TV's Wes Boling this afternoon where he claimed, once again, that he trusts coach Bruce Pearl and the idea that Pearl enjoys his time as coach at UT.

Hamilton also said he had not talked with anyone in the Memphis athletic department about the university's interest in Pearl, but that such contact was usually a formality and that most of the hiring talks were conducted by third parties.

Hamilton said he would not release a statement from Pearl until the two parties had a chance to talk.

GoVolsXtra.com's Mike Griffith reported earlier Thursday that Pearl and Hamilton will begin talks this afternoon about Pearl's contract at UT.

“Bruce is my coach and I trust him,'' Hamilton told Griffith. “We have shown in the past we will compensate him fairly and we will continue to compensate him fairly.

"I can tell you that I have no reason to believe Bruce Pearl is going to be anywhere other than Knoxville next year. He has told me he's not interested in anything else and I've got to take him at his word.''

UT officials said they are not aware of a report today by Memphis television station WMC that Pearl has been offered a seven-year, $21 million contract to fill the coaching vacancy at Memphis.

The Commercial Appeal reported on its Web site that Memphis officials are expected to officially ask for permission to talk to Pearl today.

Hamilton repeated Thursday that Memphis has not contacted him asking permission to talk with Pearl.

"I would deny them permission, but I don't necessarily think that means they're going to ask," said Hamilton. "The reality is that's kind of an archaic way of dealing with these changes in the last few years.''

But there are no stipulations in Pearl's contract that would enable Hamilton to deny Memphis access to talk with Pearl.

Memphis spokesman Bob Winn told the Associated Press he conferred with athletic director R.C. Johnson at approximately 10:30 a.m. Central Thursday morning about Pearl.

“To the questions of is he coming here to be interviewed and have we made an offer? No and No,” Winn said.

Here's the interview Boling had with Hamilton on WVLT-TV: