Breaking Down The Tennessee-Greg Schiano Fiasco

ArrowZeppelin8 years ago

The hire, while met with some mild skepticism, was generally met with praise — especially from the Tennessee fan base. J/K everyone fucking hated it.

With the quickness of the banjo riff from Rocky Top, Vols fans took to Twitter and formed a virtual lynch mob to prevent the finalization of Schiano’s hiring. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, was furious about this. Frothing yokels were hollering from every corner of the internet about how bad the hire was. Local businesses declared that Schiano would not be welcomed in their establishments. Students protested outside the athletic department offices because no college controversy is complete without the requisite protest. Shit, even state government officialswere getting in on the action, calling for Schiano’s hiring to be stopped and for first-year athletic director John Currie’s head on a platter.

So what was the reason for all this backlash? It partly had to do with Schiano’s reputation for being a total shithead and lackluster head coaching record, but it mostly had to do with the fact that in a deposition for the Jerry Sandusky trial, it was revealed that Schiano knew of Sandusky’s sexual abuse of children. In fact, the fans made it abundantly clear on The Rock at UT’s campus that was the reason they did not want Schiano hired.

Congratulations to the university on conducting less research for a major hire than most of their students do for midterms. In the midst of all this, talks between Schiano and Tennessee broke down, and by the end of the night, Schiano was no longer on track to become the next Volunteer head coach.

And to top it all off, there are reports saying that Schiano could successfully sue Tennessee for breach of contract as a result of this whole ordeal, because even though the season is over, Tennessee still can’t stop taking Ls.

So what did we learn from all this? Apparently, it’s that you can force a major institution or organization out of making decisions that you do not agree with if you bitch loud enough on Twitter about it (Please do not share that information with Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton supporters.) The fans and shady boosters may be justified in their anger, but it’s still hilarious to see Tennessee fold like a cheap suit once they were criticized and had pressure put on them. People always talk about how cyberbullying is so terrible yet they fail to see the benefits of it, like in this situation.

Anyway, good luck to the next victim poor soul sacrificial lamb coach that gets hired at Tennessee, it sounds like a real chill work environment surrounded by totally stable and supportive fans. I hear Art Briles is looking for a job, maybe Tennessee can reach out him. Can’t go any worse than this fiasco just did, right?.

Image via Youtube