Vols’ Currie defends search

been aware of Sandusky’s sexual abuse against children, though Schiano has said he never saw abuse or had any reason to suspect it while working at Penn State.

Currie said Tennessee “carefully interviewed and vetted” Schiano and that the former Rutgers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach “received the highest recommendations.”

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam said he wasn’t involved in the search but added that he doesn’t “think anybody looks at the way everything came down yesterday and says that’s the way it should happen.”

Haslam also said his brother, Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, wasn’t playing an instrumental role in the search. Jimmy Haslam was part of the search committee that assisted in the hiring of Currie this year.

“I do think we should all be concerned about a rush to judgment,” Bill Haslam said.

Currie said Schiano wasn’t mentioned in the 2012 report on the Sandusky scandal led by former FBI director Louis Freeh and “was not one of the more than 400 people interviewed in the investigation.” Currie also said Schiano was never asked to testify in any criminal or civil matter.

Currie said Tennessee officials conferred with Ohio State officials who conducted their own investigation after the 2016 document release.

Ohio State coach Urban Meyer praised Schiano on Monday as “an elite person, an elite father, an elite friend, an elite football coach.”

“The one thing about coaching is it’s got to be a perfect fit, and maybe it wasn’t,” Meyer said.