What if Tennessee had hired Greg Schiano? A whimsical look at a disaster avoided
Exactly 2 years ago, on Nov. 26, 2017, Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano was set to become the next head coach of the University of Tennessee Volunteers. But Vols fans triggered a backlash on social media. Then boosters and state politicians got involved. Eventually, the potential hire was squashed. Almost 2 weeks later, UT hired Alabama defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt. Fast-forward 2 years, and the Vols are preparing for their first bowl game since 2016.
I’ve often wondered what life would have been like for Greg Schiano, as well as Tennessee players, fans and administrators, had UT ignored the protests. What if they took the heat, went through with the hire, and established Schiano as the 26th head coach in Tennessee football history?
Let’s give it a try, shall we?
Oh, the nightmare that could have been …
* * * * * *
A late Sunday night press conference is held on the University of Tennessee campus. Students who were home on Thanksgiving break returned throughout the day, and over 1,000 of them gathered in front of Neyland Stadium to voice their displeasure. One student holds up a FREE HARAMBE sign for no apparent reason. The same fraternity that burned a mattress when Lane Kiffin bolted in 2010 was back, this time setting an old recliner on fire.
The next day, Tennessee athletics director John Currie is speaking at the typically friendly Knoxville Quarterback Club luncheon. He has to escape an angry mob by jumping into the Tennessee River. That afternoon, Schiano’s picture is installed on the back of the Jumbotron.
Vols fans make their voices heard as 20,000 fewer season tickets are sold for the 2018 season. Only 63,000 fans arrive for the home opener against ETSU. Tennessee’s defense, already limited by the transfers of Daniel Bituli, Darrell Taylor and Nigel Warrior, gives up 55 points to Florida. A week later a near riot breaks out when Schiano instructs his defense to dive at Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm while the Bulldogs are in the victory formation … despite the Vols being down by 35 points. A staph infection outbreak hits the Vols’ locker room, and Missouri offensive coordinator Derek Dooley offers his expertise to Tennessee’s athletic department, as well as some expired antibiotics left over since 2012.
The Vols go on to lose every SEC game in 2018, allowing over 50 points 6 times. The Vols finish 3-9, the worst campaign in UT history.
Meanwhile, back in Columbus, Ohio State is flourishing. In particular, a memorable shutout win at Purdue propels the Buckeyes into the College Football Playoff. Ohio State coach Urban Meyer says that the 2018 team has energized him, and after contemplating retirement, he will return for the 2019 season.
On Jan. 12, 2019, exactly 9 years to the day of Lane Kiffin’s departure, agent Jimmy Sexton floats a rumor than Schiano is leaving Tennessee for a head coaching job in the XFL. Instead of student unrest, the news is met with unbridled joy on the UT campus. Kiffin, never one to pass up the chance to make noise on social media, tweets a picture of Smokey and the words, “Call me.”
Tennessee responds to the rumors by giving Schiano a 10-year contact extension.
Expectations are low for Schiano’s 2nd season in Knoxville in 2019. The decision to buy out the BYU game and replace them with Rutgers is met with disgust when 14,000 fans show up at Neyland Stadium to watch a 4-2 victory by the Vols. It’s actually one of the few positives in the season. The Vols are 2-8 after a loss at Kentucky. It’s obvious that it isn’t going to work with Schiano at Tennessee and Currie has finally seen enough.
Currie meets with the media during a hastily called press conference the next morning and announces the firing of Greg Schiano. Currie explains that once again, he won’t be using a search firm to assist with this next hire. He says that Schiano’s picture will stay on the Jumbotron until a special crane arrives, but it is on a ship working its way through the Panama Canal and is not expected in Knoxville until 2026.
Oakland Raiders coach Jon Gruden wears an orange shirt at his weekly press conference, spawning a new round of “Grumors.” Currie lets those “Grumors” fester for a few days while he makes calls to Memphis’ Mike Norvell and Baylor’s Matt Rhule. They both say no. In the meantime, the “Grumors” earn Gruden gets a 20-year contract extension from the Raiders.
Duke’s David Cutcliffe appears set to return to Rocky Top, but talks break down when Cutcliffe says that he wants to bring his pet Labrador Retriever “Sparky” and has the request denied.
After that, Currie contacts Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona and former Pittsburgh Penguins coach Scotty Bowman to gauge their interest in the Tennessee job. They each say no.
As is written in the University of Tennessee bylaws, every Vols football coaching search must involve Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy. So, Currie calls Gundy. Gundy says he’s very interested in the Tennessee job. As is tradition, Gundy decides to stay in Stillwater and receives a raise and a contract extension from Oklahoma State.
During this coaching search, Currie isn’t commenting publicly, instead spending 2 weeks in Toronto leading up to the men’s basketball team’s game against Washington. After the Vols’ victory, things get weird when Currie is unreachable for 6 hours. Later, he tells UT officials that he was stuck at the DMV and his phone died.
Suddenly, Currie receives a telegram from Washington State coach Mike Leach, who informs Currie that he’ll take the job and show up in Knoxville “when the Moon is in the seventh wave.” Currie never called Leach, so yeah … that was weird.
Finally, Currie bites the bullet and makes the one phone call he’s dreaded making.
“Coach Fulmer, what do you think about taking over as head coach once again? Really, things aren’t that bad!”
On the other end of the phone, all you hear is uncontrollable laughter.
Tennessee eventually realizes that Greg Schiano’s $570 million buyout is going to bankrupt the athletic department. They begrudgingly bring Butch Jones back as head coach, as he is still receiving his own buyout. Jones will also be required to manage a weekly bake sale to raise funds. It’s called “Biscuit by Biscuit.”
(Long pause.)
Yeah … probably a good thing Tennessee didn’t hire Greg Schiano.
Allot of this probably would have been a legitimate outcome.
Say what you want but the guy is a good coach. I’ll give Pruitt credit for getting this squad to a bowl but it’s not like UT had to beat anyone that good to get there. Schiano wouldn’t have lost to Georgia State or BYU.
maybe but I am one vol fan glad he was not hired. I have no idea what he knew or didn’t know about the penn state stuff. When new broke of his hiring I didn’t even know he had coached there. But I know how many NFL players and coaches felt about his low class tactics and I didn’t feel he was a good fit in the SEC. He probably is a decent coach. Don’t care. Don’t want him.
Dont care.
We’ll be just fine.
Georgia state and BYU does not sting as much anymore anyways.
If he is such a good coach why is Ohio State’s Defense, a lot better this year than last? Same players look at the jump Chase Young made without him as a coach.
You have a point. All they had to do was let Kentucky snatch defeat from the jaws of victory like much of the last three decades.
Would he lose to Evansville?
I believe that Greg Schiano is a good football coach. If he were not a good coach, Urban Meyer would not have had him on his staff at Ohio State. Whether he would’ve worked out at Tennessee, no one will ever know. We all heard about the amazing job he did at Rutgers, but his overall record there was so so. Why the Tennessee fans(students mainly) did not want him, I have not ever heard any reasons. Maybe because he’s a “yankee” or kinda all-business-like, but that AD, Currie, was laughing it up in the Bahamas when the search was on(not a good reflection on the Athletic Department at Tennessee).
I lived in Knoxville for ten(10) years & totally understand how passionate the fan base is, and they deserve a competitive team in the SEC. The days of Phil Fulmer’s run at Tennessee spoiled ’em big-time, his teams could not beat Spurrier’s Florida teams nor beat Alabama, but mostly had great records and One National Championship. Can a nationally-competitive Tennessee team ever exist again ? It’s been a while, but I believe that the fan base would be overjoyed to go 8/4 every year and go bowling in a warm climate.
OSU’s defense took a big jump this year over last year’s squad. Urban loaded his coaching staff up with former coaches and they are doing better without them.
Afan
“Well, I can’t help but say, ‘11-5.’ ”
Two things about your post.
1. Fulmer owned Alabama 11-5 while he was a coach.
2. If Schiano is such a great coach why isn’t anyone beating his door down to hire him? OSU didn’t name him interim or hire him as HC when Meyer left. The only school besides UT trying to hire this guy is Rutgers.
Good lord Afan, you are wrong on so many of your points. First you must have just been born or just become a football fan if you don’t know about the schiano debacle. The ruckus was about his time at penn state during the Sandusky molestations and what if any role he had. Fulmer did struggle vs florida but he had an 11-5 record vs bama. The fan base would have been very satisfied with an 8-4 record this year, probably ok but certainly not overjoyed with 8-4 next year but you are nuts if you think the fan base will be overjoyed with 8-4 year in and year out.
Butch Jones went 9-4 2 years in a row and was let go, so no I don’t think UT fans will be satisfied with 8-4 every year.
That may be. But, I suspect Butch would still be at UT if he wasn’t thin skinned snake oil salesman.
Couldn’t beat Alabama? Fulmer was 11-5 versus Alabama.
Schiano considers himself the luckiest man alive after courting the Clampetts and then getting out of town without fleas.
Good for him. I know the University of Tennessee is better for not having him and his shadiness near the program.
This coming from the guy who said Coley is a huge upgrade over Chaney
You must have me confused with the coaches at Georgia State, or maybe the BYU staff.
Not an argument-enjoy not making the playoff yet again. 1980.
go back to pickin that banjo toothless dog. maybe ned beaty will let you squeal for him. Should we call you pig of war. squeal little piggy squeal!
Light-hearted, funny read.
And no, he is not a good coach, but more importantly, his rape cover-up involvement (or even the hint of being around it), would have run off too many fans and fragmented an already battered fan base.
Fulmer coming in as AD was what put UT back on course. He may have lost his touch in recruiting toward the end of his tenure, but he loves the university and has passionately worked to put the department (mostly football) back on solid footing.
Pruitt has proven he can recruit AND more importantly he can actually coach football. We had a brick mailbox salesman, now we have a coach. He’s going to make some managerial mistakes due to lack of experience, but I’m willing to take those lumps knowing he’s coaching up the kids.
Preach
Remember the Schianomo!
I know it’s been a tough go lately for Tennessee, but I really believe that Tennessee fans should take more pride in the fact that they have responsibility for Alabama not winning a National Championship last year and (probably) this year.
The decision to not hire Schiano led to the Pruitt hire, which severely undermined Alabama’s defense, especially towards the end of last season, and this year, they hurt Tua, who was way off his game in the first half of LSU.
I know it’s not a win on the football field, but messing with a rival in more subtle ways is something.
We’ll take credit for the Pruitt hire but NOBODY in Knoxville is happy about Tua getting hurt in our game. Promise you that….
We don’t like seeing unpaid players hurt-UGA fans probably do though.
I remember quite a few UT fans cheering loudly after Chubb went down with that knee injury in Knoxville.
You remember fans cheering loudly when Chubb got knocked out of bounds for very little gain. It wasn’t clear he was hurt until a while later.
Incorrect footballgirl. I remember seeing Chubb sitting on the trainers table with a towel over his head. He was shown on the jumbotron and the Vol fans went crazy.
I was at the game. They cheered because at the same time Tennessee stopped Georgia on a 3rd and short that was upheld and lead to a 4th down punt.
Aaron Hernandez is still ok to UF fans-p1ss off
I was also at the game and witnessed UT fans booing directly at Chubb. You can ignore the facts if you want but it doesn’t change what happened. Also I can’t speak for all UF fans but Hernandez is not OK with me at all. I understand you small-minded UT fans just equate playing at UF to unwavering support from all UF fans forever but that isn’t true.
Delusional. I remember Florida cheering for multiple injuries. See how easy it is to just say things when you attempt a game with 90,000+ people? No one believes you @Gator4ever sorry
Allegations (particularly anecdotal) doesn’t equal evidence, but continue to allege others are small minded when you’ve got zero credible evidence.
that is quite a stretch zynka.
Fulmer took Pruitt from Bama and Chaney back from UGA. He knows what he’s doing. It’s not the first time, he’s played the game. ;)
whimsical indeed.
Not entertaining at all.
Par
I was a student at UT at the time and was working at my job at an apartment complex about 3 and a half blocks from the stadium when the protest started. I remember Currie’s number going public on twitter and people begging the fans to call and voice their opinion. Eventually his personal number was leaked too.
Why did the students not like Schiano? because he, like Currie was a puppet for the Haslam family, a major donor to the school that had been largely responsible for the demise of Tennessee athletics since the 2008 Football Season. If you are at all familiar with the Cleveland Browns Jimmy Haslam (professional Criminal and Pilot CEO) owns them. It is well known the Haslams put Currie in place instead of hiring Fulmer or Blackburn during the AD coaching search.
Currie was a terrible hire and the students in a particular have a distrust of the Haslams because they run everything. (multiple protests concerning things like outsourcing jobs happened while I was in school) Additionally the State legislature continued to make funding for student orgs a pain and who was governor at the time? Bill Haslam.
Schiano Sunday was a revolt against the bad administration put in place by the Haslams. Schiano would not have been a good hire, Curry was not a good hire, and the students finally got an opportunity to voice their opinion through one of the only things fans and alumni care about, the football program.
Haslam can’t even get a winning season in the NFL, where there’s much more parity. Dooley, Butch, and Freddie Kitchens is what happens when Haslams control the team.
My thoughts exaclty
Still waiting on that lawsuit, Greg. And, if he is such a great coach, Rutgers would have given him what he asked for. His demands were not out of line. Glad he never made it to Knoxville.
There are a metric ton of inside references in this article that most readers won’t get if they aren’t pretty hardcore fans. It’s shame too because I about died laughing at the Dooley reference (“shower discipline” for those who don’t know was a big Dooley thing as he was concerned about spreading various infections – lol).
What big time coaching job did he get since we missed on him?…….oh that’s right
Thank you for writing “whimsical” instead of “hilarious”.
The Chubb injury and several others the next year because of that cow pasture eventually negated your home field advantage because you were forced to do something. And they still fought it. I had family at Chubb game and they said there was cheering when being driven to Locker room. It’s still the worst kept field in SEC. Embarrassment doesn’t matter to UT. Long as they win.
Cry me a river
All you have to do is Google Neyland field issues with injuries. There are about 20 articles.
I skimmed. I don’t see how a grown man can proudly publish this trash calling it journalism.