Jackson Paisley

These days, it doesn’t seem like anything can go right for the Tennessee football program. The Volunteers capped off the season with a 42-24 loss to in-state rival Vanderbilt, making them 4-8 on the year. This season goes down as the worst in school history. Things may not be that bad if they just got to look forward to the spring and next season, but there’s only one problem…. Tennessee doesn’t have a head coach.

Once Butch Jones was let go, the talks of who was going to be the next coach started. If you talked to any UT fans there was only one name mentioned: Jon Gruden. #Grumors have been thrown around for years, but this time it was real. This year people actually thought it was going to happen. People on Rocky Top were convinced that Jon Gruden was going to be their next coach. They thought this until November 26, 2017. This day may go down as one of the most pivotal days in the University of Tennessee athletic department’s history.

Around noon on November 26th, news broke that Tennessee was set to hire Greg Schiano as their next football coach. At first, most of your average fans probably didn’t even know who Schiano was. When more and more started to come out, people learned that Schiano was not just some regular guy. Greg Schiano has a long history of coaching. He spent 11 years as the Rutgers head coach, with a record of 68-67, and 2 years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he went 11-21.See the source image Along with the head coaching roles, Schiano has coached Penn State, the Chicago Bears, Miami, and Ohio State. What most Tennessee fans were mad about has nothing to do with Schiano’s past in football, but his past off the field.

During his time at Penn State, Greg Schiano was involved in one of the most controversial events in the history of sports, the Jerry Sandusky case. According to reports, Schiano witnessed Sandusky doing things to kids. Nothing was ever said after that. Nobody ever came out and reported anything that had happened. Years later, when everything came out and Sandusky was convicted, Schiano obviously denied the allegations, but this has stuck with him ever since.

As soon as the people in Tennessee realized who they were about to hire, things turned ugly. Twitter ERUPTED with pissed off fans and sports media who couldn’t refresh the page quick enough. Chaos ensued. Protests started in Knoxville. People painted the famous rock on Tennessee’s campus saying “Schiano covered up child rape at Penn State”, and huge figures, including state government officials, well known Vol supporter Clay Travis, and even US Press Secretary Sara Huckabee Sanders, all chimed in on social media. It was a complete disaster for the Volunteer faithful. Here are some examples of the displeasure shown today:

Throughout the day, the ENTIRE fan base voiced their displeasure of the potential hire. Clay Travis tweeted out John Currie’s contact information and the fan’s voices were heard. Around 8PM EST, it was announced that Tennessee was no longer pursuing Greg Schiano as their next head coach. The fans won. It is truly unbelievable how a fan base came together and literally stopped their school from hiring a coach. I have never seen anything like that. This has put a bad mark on John Currie’s name though. He is going to be on a very short leash now. Currie pulled the fan base together more than they have all year, but it wasn’t for a good reason. They were calling for his head after almost hiring Greg Schiano, and now he’s got to hit a home run to get back on their good side. It’s going to be an interesting next couple of weeks for Tennessee football. With early signing period coming up and top tier coaches making moves elsewhere, something should probably happen soon. With all of the terrible things that have happened for the Vol faithful this year, this is a small victory that they can all be proud of.