On Wednesday night, Brady Hoke and the Tennessee athletic department dismissed wide-receiver Jauan Jennings from the team. The dismissal came after a rant posted on his Instagram live ripping the Tennessee coaching staff. Jennings got heated after he wanted to play against Vanderbilt this weekend, but was told he couldn’t. The former 4-star from Murfreesboro, TN was injured in the season opener against Georgia Tech, and this would have been his first game back. In the video, Jauan makes it seem like he is completely healthy and fully capable of playing Saturday. Throughout the rant, Jennings went off about Tennessee’s “lyin’ ass coaches” and continued by asking for a “great ass coaching staff” when Tennessee hires their new staff. Jennings called the coaching staff “snakes”, “lying”, and “fake”, saying that is what’s wrong with Tennessee football. Check out a majority of the rant here.
You can really tell that Jennings is passionate about wanting to be out of the field Saturday against the Commodores. I feel for the guy. It sucks. I couldn’t imagine being one of the best, if not the best, players on a team and being knocked out at the very beginning of the season. Especially if you could come back and play against your rival, who, to put it mildly, Jauan doesn’t seem to like. The rant was a little bit extreme to some, but did Jennings really deserve to be dismissed from the team?
Jauan Jennings became an instant legend when he made the game winning grab against Georgia last season. The Tennessee fan base fell in love with him. Ever since then, it seemed like he was the face of Tennessee football. After the dismissal, all of Vol Nation seemed to back up Jennings. Everyone backed him up and agreed that he is a special player for the program and did not deserve this. It’s very hard to find any kind or supportive words about Brady Hoke and the decision the Vols staff made. The following tweets show some of the support on Rocky Top:
.@John_Currie I understand Jauan picked a bad way to vent his frustration & his words could have been chosen better but u cannot dismiss that young man for being frustrated. Please consider a lesser punishment. All #Vol fans who agree please RT in support of Jauan. #JauanJennings
— The_Vol_Nation (@The_Vol_Nation) November 23, 2017
Jauan Jennings produced the greatest moment in Vols history, but then got dismissed from the team for hurting some coaches’ feelings.
— Jonathan Toye (@JonathanToye1) November 23, 2017
Say what you will about Jauan Jennings, but if you’re in a fight, you want that guy on your side. Everyone calls him “Dog” for a reason.
— Wes Rucker (@wesrucker247) November 22, 2017
Jauan Jennings is one of us.
— Jon Reed (@Jon__Reed) November 22, 2017
I posted the following poll to my twitter to see what my followers, majority Tennessee fans, thought about the decision:
Did the Tennessee athletic program make the right decision by dismissing Jauan Jennings?
— Jackson Paisley (@JacksonKPaisley) November 24, 2017
Of course, there are always two sides to any story. Other things could have led up to Jennings dismissal, but as of now it seems like the rant was the cause. With this being the only foreseeable cause, I think that Brady Hoke and John Currie completely overreacted. Coaches and players do not always get along, and this seems to be nothing more than a disagreement between coach and player. Most Tennessee fans and media have sided with Jennings saying he was speaking the truth. You can’t kick a player off your team just because he disagrees with the way you run a program. A simpler solution could have been to suspend him from all football activities, facilities, etc. This thing has been way overdone by the athletic program. I see Jauan Jennings joining the team again when a new staff is hired at Tennessee. The only way he won’t be back on the team next season is if Hoke is hired full time (which won’t happen), or if he declares for the NFL draft. If Jennings stays at the University of Tennessee, I would not be surprised at all to see him on the field in the fall. Until then, let’s all enjoy #grumors season while it lasts.
