Vol Fans Blow Up Social Media to Force UT Athletic Director to Bail on Greg Schiano as New Football Coach

Tennessee Star Staff

Harsh social media reaction forced University of Tennessee Athletic Director John Currie to back off from hiring former Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano as the school’s new head coach on the same day ESPN first reported the deal with Schiano had been agreed to by all parties.

“Tennessee has backed out of a memorandum of understanding with Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano to be the Volunteers’ next football coach, sources told ESPN’s Chris Low,” ESPN reported Sunday night shortly after 8 p.m. eastern, adding:

The memorandum of understanding was signed by both parties Sunday in Columbus, Ohio, and the school had planned to introduce Schiano at a news conference Sunday night.

But when news broke that Tennessee was close to finalizing a deal with Schiano earlier Sunday, there was public outcry among Tennessee fans, with people citing his alleged connection to the Jerry Sandusky era at Penn State.

About 100 people gathered on Tennessee’s campus to protest a potential Schiano hire, with many of them holding signs with various messages such as “Schia-NO.”

At a rock on campus where students often paint various messages, the words “Schiano covered up child rape at Penn State” appeared Sunday.

You can watch the Sunday evening ESPN report here:

The Sunday morning ESPN report of Schiano’s pending hire broke around 10:30 am eastern.

Radio personality Clay Travis reacted negatively on Twitter almost immediately:

 

 

Within the hour, Travis was calling on Vol fans to rally against Schiano via social media:

Schiano has performed well in the past two years as defensive coordinator for Ohio State University, but his name has not surfaced as a potential candidate for any college or NFL head coaching job.

Part of the reason is his disastrous record as head coach of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers between 2012 and 2013, where his teams lost twice as many games as they won.

“Even those intent on lauding Schiano’s defensive aptitude would be hard-pressed to ignore his history of allegedly acting contrary to his players’ best interests,” the Ringer noted:

A quick rundown from his two-year stint in Tampa Bay: Schiano was accused by the NFLPA of leaking confidential information about quarterback Josh Freeman’s enrollment in a substance abuse program and reportedly rigged a vote to strip Freeman of his captaincy; repeatedly ordered his players to attack opposing kneel-downs (which angered Tennessee legend Peyton Manning); allegedly exaggerated a player’s recovery from an infectious disease; and claimed medicine is not an “exact science.” NFL.com’s Michael Silver summed up how thoroughly Schiano was hated in the Buccaneers’ locker room and NFL coaching circles, with one player saying that playing for Schiano was “like being in Cuba.” Why, exactly, would any high school recruit sign up to play for Schiano?

“Prior to joining the Bucs, Schiano was Rutgers’ head coach, leading the Scarlet Knights to their best sustained run of success in the program’s recent history. However, there are plenty that aren’t happy with the hire for football reasons, but the much louder dissenters among the Volunteer faithful point to the testimony from former Penn State assistant Mike McQueary that noted Schiano and another Penn State assistant were aware of Jerry Sandusky raping young boys and didn’t report it,” Uproxx reported:

 

While fans will always argue about the merits of a coaching hire on the field, reports that the school was finalizing a deal to hire Schiano caused widespread backlash from the fan base, with the majority pointing to that testimony as the biggest reasons Tennessee couldn’t bring him into the program.

It wasn’t just anonymous fans that fired back at the Schiano reports, as multiple Tennessee state representatives took to Twitter to publicly voice their dissent in the school hiring Schiano.

Former Tennessee standout and ex-NFL player Albert Haynesworth, who has donated a lot of money to the football program, also took to Twitter to note he would no longer support the program in Schiano was hired.

Glenn Jacobs, best known as WWE’s Kane, who is running for mayor of Knox County, also voiced his concerns with the hire, calling for Tennessee athletic director John Currie to reconsider.

Three of the five Republican candidates for governor also expressed their opposition to the Schiano hire on Sunday.

Mae Beavers issued a press release stating her opposition to the Schiano hire, noting that UT should not be hiring a new coach who was “potentially complicit” in abuse.

 

Speaker Beth Harwell tweeted her opposition, as did Rep. Diane Black (R-TN-07) and Williamson County businessman Bill Lee, who weighed in with the following early Sunday afternoon:

Black offered this tweet on Sunday at 3:56 pm:

Knoxville businessman Randy Boyd was the only major Republican gubernatorial candidate who offered no comment on the potential hire of Schiano.

 

 

 

 

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One Thought to “Vol Fans Blow Up Social Media to Force UT Athletic Director to Bail on Greg Schiano as New Football Coach”

  1. Bruce
    November 27, 2017 at 8:57 am

    Probably got him for 10 bucks an hour. Meanwhile the AD just got q fat raise.,

    Reply

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