Reports: Vols pull offer to Schiano
Sunday afternoon, Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano seemed on the verge of being hired as the head coach at the University of Tennessee.
By Sunday evening, several media outlets reported that Tennessee had pulled its offer after a backlash by Volunteers fans and state politicians erupted against Schiano on social media and on the school’s campus.
Many who denounced the anticipated hiring cited Schiano’s alleged role in the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State. Unsealed documents in July 2016 revealed that Mike McQueary said in a deposition that Schiano, then a Nittany Lions assistant coach, told another assistant, Tom Bradley, that he had witnessed an incident of abuse.
Schiano denied the allegation on Twitter at that time.
“In response to media reports from earlier today, I never saw any abuse, nor had reason to suspect any abuse, during my time at Penn State,” he said.
Schiano was not charged or sued in civil court. Bradley denied under oath ever knowing about Sandusky’s illegal behavior.
At a golf outing in Toledo when that story broke, Ohio State coach Urban Meyer told The Blade that he had had a “long talk” with Schiano about the Sandusky matter and was reassured that Schiano had done nothing wrong.
In a Big Ten teleconference on Sunday afternoon to discuss Saturday’s conference championship game with Wisconsin, Meyer praised Schiano.
“Greg has been a close friend for 20-plus years,” Meyer said. “He’s an elite person, elite father, elite husband. That carries over to the way he handles his players. Excellent coach, excellent person.”
Meyer shed little light on the status of the talks between Schiano and Tennessee.
“I know he was contacted, and that’s all I know at this point,” Meyer said. “We’ll let you know when we know something.”
By then, reports from several national media outlets indicated that Schiano’s hiring was a near-certainty. Then came the uproar, whether it was rooted in the Sandusky scandal or, as some suspect, the Tennessee fan base wanting a splashier hire. According to The Associated Press, at least three Tennessee state representatives and four gubernatorial candidates came out against the expected hiring. About 100 protesters gathered on campus to express anti-Schiano sentiment.
Tennessee lost eight games in a season for the first time in school history and coach Butch Jones was fired on Nov. 12. The Volunteers’ season ended with a humiliating loss to in-state rival Vanderbilt on Saturday.
Schiano, 51, has been at Ohio State for two seasons. He and Luke Fickell shared defensive coordinator duties in 2016. Schiano became the sole coordinator this year after Fickell took the head coaching job at the University of Cincinnati.
A New Jersey native, Schiano was the head coach at Rutgers from 2001 to ’11, and he built the Scarlet Knights from a downtrodden program to one that was ranked as high as No. 6 in 2006. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers hired Schiano in 2012, but he was fired after going 11-21 in two seasons.