Greg Schiano is reportedly “close” to finalizing a deal to become the new Tennessee head football coach. Schiano, who is currently an assistant coach at Ohio State, has not been a head coach since he was fired by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers back in 2013.
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.
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.
Our Tennessee standards mean something, and a Greg Schiano hire would be anathema to all that our University and our community stand for. I sincerely hope that these rumors are not true, because even serious consideration would be unacceptable.
— Eddie Smith (@RepEddieSmith) November 26, 2017
@UTKnoxville if you hire him, the backlash will be insurmountable and devastating to the University and the state.
— Jeremy Faison (@JeremyFaison4TN) November 26, 2017
I have reached out to @John_Currie and others in administration at UT expressing that WE as a TN Community do not approve of Schiano. #higherstandards
— Rep. Jason Zachary (@JasonZacharyTN) November 26, 2017
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.
I’m just going to say this if we hire Greg Schiano as our next head coach my options will be open to which college program I will Be donating my TIME and MONEY to. (No disrespect to GS) but if UT leaders don’t take football serious then I will find the program that will!!!
— Hydra Headphones (@haynesworthiii) November 26, 2017
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.
Too many well-founded concerns about Schiano from our community. Hiring would be very unpopular and hurt UT…. https://t.co/MryvM8Qrfc
— Glenn Jacobs (@GlennJacobsTN) November 26, 2017
A Tennessee fan also painted “The Rock” to let everyone know exactly why they didn’t want Schiano as head coach.
The Rock on UT's campus. pic.twitter.com/aG3BXrkKOW
— Louis Fernandez Jr (@LouFernandezJr) November 26, 2017
The backlash to the reports of Schiano being hired are incredible and almost unanimous against him. What will be interesting to watch from here is how the university proceeds, and if Ohio State — Schiano’s current employer — is put under pressure by its fan base to do something about Schiano being gainfully employed in Columbus.
