Report: Tennessee backs out of deal with Schiano over fan backlash
It appears Greg Schiano won't be Tennessee's head coach after all, as ESPN's Chris Low is reporting the school has backed out of a memorandum of understanding with the Ohio State defensive coordinator after unprecedented backlash over the move on social media.
While some of the backlash pertained to football reasons, the strongest was tied to Schiano's link to the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State. Former Nittany Lions assistant Mike McQueary alleged that he was told by another assistant, Tom Bradley, that Schiano had witnessed Sandusky "doing something" to a boy in the shower.
Schiano and Bradley have both denied the allegation and the former Rutgers coach was never charged or sued in civil court, but that didn't deter a large part of the fan base from strongly voicing its displeasure against the hire.
This included multiple politicians in the area speaking out against the move on social media.
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
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
According to Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports, Tennessee officials had already vetted Schiano's link to the Penn State story when signing a memorandum of understanding with him for their head coaching job.
It appears that's no longer in play with Tennessee backing out of the deal. That puts even further attention on the Volunteers' coaching search and athletic director John Currie, who certainly can't be pleased with how the whole situation unfolded.