Tennessee’s coaching search has gone off the rails since the school tried to hire Ohio State DC Greg Schiano, only to be met with backlash from the fan base.

Since then, several candidates have turned down the job and it resulted in the school replacing AD John Currie with former coach Phillip Fulmer.

As the search continues, ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit weighed in on the Schiano situation on Saturday’s episode of College GameDay. He said the Vols properly vetted Schiano, but that didn’t matter once the fans made their voices heard.

“It’s unprecedented,” he said. “It gave the fan, that typically has no voice, when they unite, it gave them a voice. In Tennessee’s case, they caved in.

“You had Peyton Manning involved in this and they talked to Urban Meyer and Bill Belichick — those are brilliant minds — when it came to making this decision. Tennessee caved in. To me, that’s where this whole thing got started.”

The Vols’ coaching search continues, but Fulmer should be able to land someone soon, whether it’s former Tennessee QB Tee Martin or someone else.

However, now the Vols know that the fans need to be on board with the hire before anything can happen.