Greg Schiano lost his job as the Vols’ football coach before he got started because of a swift, strong and perhaps undeserved backlash.
If ever there was an industry that shrugs at moral outrage, it is college sports. Autumn Saturdays are held sacred for football rivalries, are they not? Spring weekends are the stuff of March Madness.
Every now and then, some institutions of higher learning earn a tsk-tsk for cutting corners, or a wrist slap for violating N. C. A. rules. No-show classes at North Carolina? No worries. College basketball coaches indicted for trying to turn those student-athletes into meal tickets? It’s been going on forever.
But try to hire a football coach with a middling record at a once-mighty Southeastern Conference university.
Hang on for dear life.
Consider the case of the Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano. On Sunday morning, he was apparently the coach-elect of the University of Tennessee. By nightfall, he was not.
Schiano’s hiring had leaked before it was announced, and the decision was swiftly pilloried because Schiano had allegedly — and this is a whopper of an allegedly — failed to report sexual assault while an assistant coach at Penn State under Joe Paterno and alongside the convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky.
“SCHIANO COVERED UP CHILD RAPE AT PENN STATE,” was painted on The Rock, a campus landmark and a sort of predigital town square.
Elected officials, of course, got involved on Twitter and in statements to reporters.
“The head football coach at the University of Tennessee is the highest-paid state employee,” said Jeremy Faison, a state representative. “They’re the face of our state. We don’t need a man who has that type of potential reproach in their life as the highest-paid state employee. It’s egregious to the people and it’s wrong to the taxpayers.”
In a 2015 deposition, the former Penn State assistant coach Mike McQueary testified that another Penn State assistant coach, Tom Bradley, had told him that Schiano had talked to him about seeing Sandusky abusing a boy sometime in the early 1990s. Both Schiano and Bradley, most recently an assistant at U. C. L. A, have denied the allegation and said they had no knowledge of the abuse.
On Monday, Anthony Lubrano, a trustee at Penn State since 2012, said in a statement that Schiano “had nothing to do with the Sandusky scandal.”
“Any stories about his involvement are completely uncorroborated and without basis in fact,” Lubrano said. “To impugn Mr. Schiano’s character based on hearsay alone is irresponsible and unfair.”
Tennessee’s athletic director, John Currie, too, issued a strong defense of Schiano that was strange in light of the fact Currie caved to public pressure and didn’t go through with Schiano’s hire.
“We carefully interviewed and vetted him, as we do candidates for all positions,” Currie said in a statement. “He received the highest recommendations for character, family values and commitment to academic achievement and student-athlete welfare from his current and former athletics directors, players, coaching colleagues and experienced media figures.”
Mark Dominik, the former general manager of the N. F. L.’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, pinpointed the real reason Schiano was so objectionable to the Volunteer faithful: He hadn’t won enough.
As head coach of the Bucs in 2012 and 2013, Schiano was 11-21. In 11 seasons as Rutgers’ head coach, he went 68-67. His six winning seasons at Rutgers and six bowl appearances may have passed muster at the University of New Jersey, even if Schiano’s $2 million salary and the university’s $102 million stadium expansion turned off many Scarlett Knights fans.
But Old Rocky Top needs and wants better.
The uproar in Volunteer nation is not because the Tennessee faithful are suddenly “woke” and demanding a coach who’s part Billy Graham, part Bobby Bowden.
After all, the Vols once employed as their basketball coach Bruce Pearl, who is no stranger to N. C. A. transgressions. Last year, Tennessee settled a $2.48 million federal lawsuit that a group of women brought against the university for the way it handled their allegations of sexual assaults by student-athletes.
Certainly some of the people in Tennessee who objected so swiftly and vociferously on Sunday to the Schiano news were drawing a moral line. For others, though, this is about the University of Tennessee wanting to be good at football again. They want a better coach than Schiano.
This year the Vols posted their first eight-loss season in history. Butch Jones (34-27 over five seasons) was fired on Nov. 12, the day after the team lost to Missouri, 50-17, to finish an inexcusable 0-6 in conference play.
Volunteer nation could not endure another season like that. So Schiano’s deal was scrapped. The talking heads were happy, as were the trolls and politicians.
“Thank you to our community for stepping up and standing for our traditional, commons sense TN Values! #HigherStandards” tweeted Jason Zachary, a state representative.
Now, moral outrage has found a home at the University of Tennessee. At least until the Vols find a coach who can win a national championship.
