Hope is valuable.

The Powers That Be at Tennessee haven’t given us much reason to believe they will make a good decision in this situation. Not only were they completely out of touch in almost hiring Greg Schiano, they believed Schiano was a more valuable candidate than Mike Gundy, Jeff Brohm, and any number of other options available before everything got nuts on Sunday. It was a stunningly poor move on both a football and a fan relations front, one John Currie will have a long and difficult road to recover from, if he still can.

What do you do when you can’t trust the thing you love to make good decisions?

When the Vols hired Butch Jones, Tennessee’s faith was tested. But we could hope the coach who went 9-3 the last two years at Cincinnati with a pair of shared division titles could grow into the role at Tennessee. And fans showed up, early and often and even late into his final season, because we love Tennessee and we tried to love Butch Jones.

It’s been five years, only about 365 days of which, from one October to the next in 2015-2016, felt like a real return on the investment. The last year was the worst in school history.

We’re all here because we love Tennessee. What we need is hope.

And what we’re losing by the hour is faith in the decision makers.

I actually liked swinging and missing on Mike Gundy; it was a serious play for a serious coach. I don’t know what happened with Jeff Brohm, but fan reaction to the possibility/momentary probability should be educational for the decision makers, if they’re willing to listen.

It’s not exclusive to hiring Tee Martin. You certainly don’t have to hire Lane Kiffin. But you have to hire hope.

When faith seems non-existent, love gets very difficult. When you’ve already shown up for a decade now and been met with only disappointment, it gets more difficult to write the check for tickets. When you don’t believe those in charge are making good decisions about the future of the program, it gets more difficult to show up to support the program.

Tennessee needs hope. And even if there is little faith in the decision makers long-term, they can still make a hire that provides hope today.

Jeff Brohm would have done that, but he’s not the only one. Tee Martin would do that in a different way, but he’s not the only one either. Again:  we hoped in Butch Jones. It can be done.

As one example, consider the difference between Chad Morris and Dave Doeren.

Chad Morris took over an SMU team that went 1-11 in 2014. He went 2-10, then 5-7, then 7-5. Before that he was the architect of the Clemson offense from 2011-14. I don’t know if Chad Morris would be a good coach at Tennessee. But there is reason to hope. (There’s also reason to enjoy an offense that’s currently seventh nationally in S&P+ and 16th in yards per play. If you hire Chad Morris, you take some of that Mike Gundy money and buy a defensive coordinator.)

Chad Morris wouldn’t have been anyone’s first choice, before or after Sunday. But there is reason to hope.

It is simply a much harder sell with a more known entity like Dave Doeren.

Dave Doeren is the guy NC State hoped would make a difference. After a 3-9 first season, Doeren went 8-5, 7-6, 7-6, and is 8-4 this year. Tom O’Brien’s last three years at NC State:  9-4, 8-5, 7-5.

Chad Morris (and Jeff Brohm, and Tee Martin, and a bunch of other guys) is an unknown. He might be good. He might not be. But I can hope.

We already know much more about Dave Doeren. Another power conference school (and one with a lower standard of success, traditionally) already hoped he was the guy to move them forward, and so far he has only achieved the same things his predecessor did before being fired.

It is simply much, much harder to hope in Dave Doeren than an unknown.

Consider this as well:  five of Tennessee’s first seven games next year are vs West Virginia, Florida, at Georgia, at Auburn, and Alabama. That is a challenge, to say the least. If Tennessee takes a beating in some or all of those games, who do you want to take that beating?

If it’s Tee Martin, the narrative is patience. I have no idea if Tee Martin would be a successful coach at Tennessee if he took the job right now, but I do know no one would get more patience from the fan base. If he starts 2-5 and finishes below .500 his first year, fans would handle it much better. But they will also handle it better if it’s someone like Chad Morris, someone who walks in the door with more hope. Tennessee is likely to struggle next season no matter who is wearing the headset. But they’re 2-5 with Dave Doeren, he will get far less benefit of the doubt because he will inherit far less hope. Even though one year on the job doesn’t prove much of anything, some will say they’re already out on Dave Doeren because deep down they were out on him from day one. I fear Tennessee needs more hope than he can currently provide.

Hope isn’t just about morale. It’s about ticket sales and patience. It’s about keeping love alive even when faith is dormant. Reasonable fans – which I always believe are the vast majority of Tennessee’s paying customers – will always be invested if you give them hope.

(Also, in the hope department:  Les Miles. It is baffling to me that he can’t even get an interview. It’s easy to view this as a crisis, which makes one look for safety, and Les Miles is the safest pick on the board. I can easily find hope in Les Miles.)

If the Vols hire Doeren, I will support him. I won’t take it out on him. But hope will be more difficult to come by at a time when Tennessee needs it most. And patience will wear thinner, faster at a time when Tennessee is likely to need more of it.

Even if we lack faith in the decision makers, they might be able to see how such a hire is beneficial to them too. With Tennessee’s name in the national sports news for reasons they don’t like, I’m sure it’s tempting to just hire someone and try to move on. But it is far better for those decision makers in the long run to not panic, at least listen to the people, and make a hire they can find hope in. The longer we can hope, the longer we’re invested. And, in this case, the more time they might buy for themselves before the unrest skips right over the head coach and goes to the top of the ladder. It’s already there tonight. But there is still time to make a hopeful hire that benefits both them and the fans.

The conversations about why we have no faith in the decision makers needs to take place anyway. But Tennessee also needs a football coach; even if not tonight, relatively soon. There are still good options out there. You don’t have to panic. And you should never underestimate the value of hope.

 

One of the most interesting things about what happened on Rocky Top Sunday concerns the shift in the balance of power in collegiate athletic programs. While some Vols fans were celebrating having “taken back their program,” most national sports media pundits were decrying John Currie’s “spineless” abdication of his decision-making authority to the fans. I heard the latter so many times yesterday that I lost track of everyone who said it. One representative example of the national criticism is a piece from Yahoo’s Pete Thamel saying that Tennessee has now “decided to let their fans dictate their coaching search “American-Idol”-style.

In case you’re wondering, that is not a compliment. Thamel is not alone, either, as that sentiment has been a recurring theme among the national media the last 36 hours. I’ve seen only one exception, from SI.com’s Andy Staples.

The profound lack of nuance is clouding up the real issue. Regardless of their words, fans don’t really mean that they’re in control of the program, and national media folks don’t really mean that Tennessee has opened the phone lines to take votes on who is going to be the next head coach.

No, fans are not saying that the administration should do everything they want and media is not saying that they should ignore fans completely. At least I hope not. When everyone’s over the top, everyone’s wrong.

The real question is this: How much weight should the administration give to the opinions of fans?

The answer, of course, is some. Sunday was about fans feeling that “none” had finally become “some,” and they had finally found their collective voice as strong as that of big money boosters.

Always listen, sometimes act

It’s a tricky question, how much to listen to your customers.

Back in 2011, I opened a store to sell licensed apparel and accessories to sports fans. Before we opened, we did all of the requisite market research and brought in the product we thought best at the time.

When we opened the doors, we started getting real feedback from real customers, and at first we listened to every one of them and bent over backwards to give them what they desired. If a customer wanted something we didn’t have, we’d get it for them.

Acting on that feedback turned out to be a huge mistake. We soon learned that one customer really passionate about the one thing you don’t have doesn’t justify meeting that desire. We also learned that a customer who loudly complains about not having something often won’t buy it when you do anyway. Votes with wallets count more than votes with voices.

Over time, we got better at listening to the right customers and politely ignoring others. If only a small handful of people requested something we didn’t have, we knew better than to invest in it. But if enough people told us they wanted something, we would try it. And then, when we brought something new in, if it sold, we got more of it. If it didn’t sell, we politely ignored requests to stock it.

Bottom line, you have to listen to the feedback of your customers or you might never discover what they actually want, but you also have to make your own decisions about whether to act on that feedback or not.

When and how much should Tennessee act on fan feedback?

If anyone in the national media actually means it when they say that Tennessee or any other NCAA football program shouldn’t listen to its fans at all, they are just wrong or being lazy with their words.

Tennessee absolutely should listen to its audience, of that there can be no doubt. A football program, much like a business, is a symbiotic institution. The team is the product. The fans are the audience, the customers. The administration manages the details of the institution. Each of those things depends on the other. For instance, the administration needs the fans to continue buying tickets, concessions, and merchandise and, if they aren’t at the stadium, to at least remain interested in the team so that the school can continue to sell its customers’ attention to advertisers. Without customers financially engaged, the entire enterprise crumbles.

Yes, it would be unwise for the administration to grant the fan base any part of the decision-making process. But it would be equally unwise to utterly ignore the feedback they’re getting from them.

Sunday afternoon, Tennessee fans learned that athletic director John Currie was marching down the aisle on his way to the altar and an expensive long-term commitment to Greg Schiano. And then the preacher asked the loved ones in attendance to speak now or forever hold their peace, and the Tennessee fan base spoke up.

There were multiple reasons given for the objection. Some were uncomfortable about the Penn State stuff in the Washington Post article. Some were alarmed that Tennessee would choose a guy that had submarined a team in Tampa by losing the trust of his players, a situation much too similar to what had just happened in Knoxville with the guy they had just fired. Some didn’t like Schiano’s reported tendency to tick off people known for being nice (same link), including Tennessee’s favorite son, Peyton Manning. There were other reasons, as well, and some of these reasons were all mixed in together.

Some, like me, were especially alarmed at the sheer volume of fans headed for the exits in droves, regardless of the reason. These were folks ready to finally throw in the towel after a decade of waiting for the University to deliver on a promise to give them something worth cheering. It was too much to ask of too many, and the stands were emptying before our eyes. If my humble little fan shop in Kingsport, Tennessee is concerned about the sudden disappearance of customers, I cannot fathom why or how the Tennessee athletics administration could care less.

The customers were being ignored, again, and they were leaving.

The $100M dollar donor vs. an army of thousand dollar donors

The funny thing is, Tennessee actually has been listening to some of its customers for years, which is perceived, rightly or wrongly, to be precisely the problem.

We peasant fans have little to no idea what goes on behind the curtain on The Hill. But one would have to be extremely naïve to believe that big money boosters aren’t involved and don’t have too much influence over the athletic department.

And that’s the irony of this entire story: The national media is criticizing the school for acting on the opinion of thousands of fans while ignoring the very real possibility that it’s been acting on the influence of a handful of big money boosters for a decade or more.

Let me go back to my business for a second. We have some customers that come in regularly and spend much, much more than others. They’re our best customers. We love them. We will give them special attention because we appreciate them. Thankfully, none of them have ever done this, but if one of them ever asked us to do something that would have a negative impact on our ability to also serve our regular customers, we’d be in a real dilemma: Lose our best customer or lose most of our regular customers?

That’s the dilemma in which Currie found himself on Sunday. What does he do when his one $100M donor wants one thing and an army of $1,000 donors want something else?

Back in the day, only the big money booster had the athletic director’s ear. Now, the thousand dollar donors have a voice, too. Collectively, they have always been as important as the big money guys, they just didn’t have a way to aggregate their influence to provide a counter-weight to the rich dude with the AD’s personal cell number. Now they do.

That’s the story. That’s what’s new. It’s not that the school has suddenly decided to cede control to its fans. It’s not even that they’ve suddenly decided to start listening to their fans. They’ve been doing that for years, and it’s resulted in a decade of debacles.

What was unique about Sunday was that the athletic department finally started listening to common fans, too, and not just the one guy who’s written the biggest check.

The relationship between Tennessee’s decision makers and Tennessee’s fan base is at an all-time low, at a moment when Tennessee’s football program just concluded its all-time worst season.

Things are bad. How can Tennessee make them better?

We’ll get to how a good hire would help in a minute. But first, the relationship itself.

Fans don’t usually get to be the decision makers, which is what made yesterday’s events so remarkable. A diverse cross-section of Tennessee fans, local politicians, former players, and local media raised their voices in varying degrees of negativity on the impending hire of Greg Schiano. Our combined noise became the sound of change. The powers that be made their choice, but the people got the last word. And not at the end of a season’s worth of protests, but in a matter of hours.

The list of Tennessee’s decision makers, in this case, seems to be exceptionally short. John Currie played this search close to the vest to ensure secrecy, but far too close to ensure receptivity. I applaud his ninja skills; they simply would have come in far more handy if paired with any ability to take the pulse of the fan base.

The fact that Currie, Chancellor Davenport, however many Haslams and whoever else was on the short list believed this was both a right and acceptable hire for Tennessee is beyond alarming. When those making the decisions are so out of touch with the people, you get new decisions and, perhaps, new decision makers. It just happened a lot faster yesterday.

I don’t want Tennessee’s next coach to be decided by a vote of the fan base. I assume the powers that be have access to information I do not. This turned out to be the case six years ago, when Tennessee went against the vast majority of fan opinion and fired Bruce Pearl. I argued the Vols should keep him in the face of up to a one-year show-cause. Turns out he was looking at three. The powers that be made the right move then, even when it was unpopular.

Tennessee’s decision makers don’t need to act on every request from the voice of the fan base. But they do need to hear it. And they need to know it well enough to recognize and, in Schiano’s case, predict it. If you are so out of touch you couldn’t see this reaction coming, this isn’t a functional relationship.

John Currie’s statement today didn’t do anything to repair this relationship. At an obviously crucial juncture, what Currie essentially chose to communicate today was that he worked hard on this search, did thoroughly research Schiano (including Penn State), and actually knew him well. But he clearly doesn’t know the fan base well.

At some point between now and a press conference introducing Tennessee’s next head football coach, it is a very good idea for John Currie to address the media. Hold a separate press conference, do an interview, something. You cannot answer questions (or refuse to answer questions) about Schiano for the first time when you’re supposed to be introducing the next guy. It’s unfair to the coach, the fans, and the media. No coach should be asked to sign up for that. Even if Currie is non-confrontational by nature, now is the moment for maturity.

When we do get around to hiring a new coach? Tennessee would appear to have a few options.

The Familiar Faces

• David Cutcliffe, Duke (reportedly staying at Duke as I type)
• Tee Martin, Southern Cal offensive coordinator

Both would scratch an itch many in the fan base have had since Phillip Fulmer was forced out nine years ago. These are our guys.

More than a feel-good story, if Tennessee’s brand has in fact been significantly damaged by the events of this weekend, securing someone with a direct connection to the university may be the smartest play. There are plenty of jobs open and plenty of situations that will look more stable than ours. Cutcliffe and/or Martin may in fact be Tennessee’s best play.

As the one was the other’s offensive coordinator at Tennessee, they are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Cutcliffe is 63 years old and spent six seasons at Ole Miss as a younger man, fired far too soon. Since leaving Tennessee a second time Cutcliffe has been at Duke, putting together a remarkable run including five bowl appearances in the last six years and a division title in 2013. (As I was typing this, Chris Low reported Cutcliffe informed Tennessee he would be staying at Duke).

Martin has been at Southern Cal since 2012, serving as offensive coordinator the last two years. The Trojans are 16th in offensive S&P+ this year, 15th in yards per play. His name was attached to Jon Gruden’s fantasy staff for both his role as an OC but also his recruiting prowess. He knows Rocky Top, but has no head coaching experience. With both, you’re selling family.

The Up-and-Comers

• Jeff Brohm, Purdue
• Willie Taggart, Oregon
• Chad Morris, SMU
• Jeremy Pruitt, Alabama defensive coordinator

A few days ago, this was the tier below Dan Mullen. Now this could be where Tennessee finds its best play. Brohm and Taggart are at power five schools, but both are just finishing their first year. Morris, the former Clemson offensive coordinator, is finishing his third season at SMU in taking the program from 2-10 to 7-5. Pruitt has led some of the nation’s best defenses at Florida State, Georgia, and Alabama in the last five years, but has never been a head coach.

The sample sizes are small, and with that comes uncertainty. Brohm won two conference titles in three years at Western Kentucky following in Taggart’s footsteps, then got Purdue from 3-9 to 6-6 on the field, from 105th to 41st in S&P+. Taggart went 7-5 at Oregon after a 4-1 start before quarterback Justin Herbert was injured.

What you’re selling here is hope that early successful returns will lead to more of the same at Tennessee and in the SEC. All of these guys might be a good head coach in this league, or none of them. But there is enough reason to hope. (The most difficult name to sell I’ve seen on a hot board is Dave Doeren, who VolQuest had listed at the bottom of theirs today. Doeren is the guy NC State hoped would take them to the next level, but the last four years is 8-5, 7-6, 7-6, and 8-4. That may be fine for NC State, even if it’s awfully similar to what Tom O’Brien did, but there would be little to hope for in terms of someone like him doing more at Tennessee. Hope, even in the midst of uncertainty, is a far easier and more important sell.)

The Rick Barnes

• Les Miles, former LSU coach

When all of this started two weeks ago, I wondered at the end of our podcast about why Les Miles couldn’t even make a hot board. Proven winner, power conference, no buyout, great recruiter. These were more hopeful days of Gruden and Frost, so we didn’t spend much time on it, but it seemed strange to me. At this point, it might seem foolish if Tennessee didn’t include him in their search.

Tennessee has always been more than one step away from a national championship in this search; that truth is easier to swallow when you’re past your top choices. I’m not sure Les Miles could win a championship at Tennessee. But could he help this program take its next step? Is he the best option now that we’re at this point? I could buy it.

You may have your favorites out of these list, or might want to include another name or two from this tier. But all of them are guys fans could and would rally around, especially after last weekend. All of them would have important strengths. All of them could give us reason to hope.

I don’t know what the right move is for the powers that be. The choices aren’t as sexy as the first time around. But getting a good fit with greater transparency is a critical step for a fragile football team and a fragile relationship between the administration and the fans.

 

 

Today will go down in college football history, and the narrative will not be kind to Tennessee fans following a social-media frenzy that included state legislators, prominent boosters, former players and some media members who demanded the university not hire Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano as UT’s next head coach.

Don’t let that deter what happened. People don’t always view doing the right thing in the best way. It still doesn’t make it less right.

Look, it’s important that we get this out of the way up front:  I sincerely hope that Schiano didn’t know anything about incarcerated serial-rapist Jerry Sandusky during his time as a Penn State assistant. But the bottom line is that Schiano’s name — for better or worse — was associated with the allegations. By now, you’ve read about the details.

I hope Schiano is a good man, a good father, a good leader of men, though his time in the NFL and myriad stories about different situations don’t really back up the latter. That doesn’t mean he’s a molestation enabler. Maybe he didn’t know anything at all, ever. Maybe he did.

There’s a gray area in there Tennessee administrators should not have been comfortable with, and that gray area is why the uproar ensued Sunday.

I believe Sunday’s revolt happened for the right reasons. Many national media members chose to run with the narrative that Tennessee fans were unhappy with Schiano’s football coaching acumen, and that’s the reason for the “faux outrage.” Are there some in that category? Absolutely. But the vast majority rebelled against the hire because of morality issues they simply couldn’t reconcile.

As a Tennessee fan, as a writer who covers the Vols, as a graduate of the school, as a father, as a man who tries to live with integrity, I cannot justify my football program operating in the Wilderness of Maybe. I’d rather lose for the next 10 years with somebody I can rally behind rather than have to worry about whether the person leading my team knew about one of the most heinous episodes in the history of sports and did nothing about it.

When there is literally an endless pool of candidates out there, to even wade into that deep end on the heels of a Title IX lawsuit and in the wake of all the Butch Jones atrocities that pale in comparison to anything associated with Penn State, it’s a tone-deaf decision for athletic director John Currie to go this route.

That’s why Vols fans everywhere had to unite and cry out for this to be rescinded. If it winds up costing Tennessee buyout money, so be it. It should come from Currie’s paycheck first and mega-booster Jim Haslam’s pocket second. If it winds up costing Tennessee wins, well, it is still the right decision. If it winds up costing Tennessee face in the public eye, this administration and athletic department have been public relations debacles for years; why should this be any different?

Could Sunday’s unprecedented outcry make this a more difficult hire for Tennessee now that Schiano is off the table? Absolutely it could. But if that’s the case, blame Currie; don’t blame a fan base that has had enough of poor on-the-field decisions, even poorer off-the-field decisions and didn’t want to pin its hopes of a program teetering on the brink of extinction on someone you’d be afraid to send your son to play for.

Currie’s smug arrogance in all of this and his refusal to understand the pulse of his fans, former players, fellow administrators and his state are grounds for dismissal in their own rights. But if Tennessee chooses to stay with somebody who may be a mouthpiece for the same decision-maker failures who have led us to this current state of a laughingstock program, at the very least Sunday could serve as a wake-up call.

You can continue to force-feed us with third-rate coaches and a program that continually stoops to all-time lows, but you can’t make us swallow our pride while you’re doing it. We will buy our tickets and fill your stadium, but we won’t compromise our beliefs to do it. And if we have to sacrifice a few puppets like Currie along the way, so be it.

The bottom line is that a bunch of the same national media members criticizing us for taking a stand for reasons they can’t back with facts but still fit into 280-character hot takes would have been criticizing the hire as a bad one had we stayed quiet. It’s only a matter of whether we want to read stories about how we blocked a potentially morally reprehensible hire or how we hired somebody who may be morally reprehensible.

The narrative only slightly changed.

If you don’t think Nick Saban would use Schiano’s possible checkered resume against the Vols the first chance he got in a prospect’s living room, you’re insane. It’s a narrow-minded hire that checks plenty of boxes but leaves many of the moral ones blank.

That we are even having this conversation is the clearest picture of Currie’s ineptitude and this administration’s continuing lack of grasp on the program it’s consistently running into the ground.

So, where do we go from here? That’s a question I cannot answer. That we were ever “here” in the first place speaks to the abject failure that is Tennessee’s athletic director, Board of Trustees and decision-makers. Why would we have any belief that it’s going to get better? They do not deserve the benefit of the doubt.

But those trumpeting the, “Tennessee will never be able to hire anybody now!” narrative is overlooking the fact that, Penn State stuff aside, Schiano was at best a mediocre coach and a coordinator who left the NFL after one year due to what was essentially a player mutiny. It isn’t like we just severed ties with somebody who could coach like Knute Rockne or inspire millions like Mr. Rogers.

Tennessee’s 12-day, one-man-led search wound up with Schiano, a man with too much baggage to sell a fan base trying to move beyond the failures of the past. There are a lot of questions surrounding Schiano, and this is a group of followers sick of having to answer questions, sick of having to justify second-rate hires and sick of supporting a bunch of administrators more worried about saving a dollar than saving face.

UT may wind up failing at this coaching search the same way it has the past three times, but exactly none of that will be because of what happened Sunday. Today was a victory worth fighting and worth winning.

We may not ever be able to brag about our football program, Vols fans. But, today, we should be proud of each other.

Chris Low is reporting that the deal between Tennessee and Greg Schiano is now officially not going to happen:

The Greg Schiano to Tennessee deal is dead. Following a public outcry among fans and state politicians, Tennessee backed out of a memorandum of understanding with Schiano that had been signed earlier in the day by both parties.

— Chris Low (@ClowESPN) November 27, 2017

Earlier, Jimmy Hyams reported that there was indeed a press conference scheduled for 9:00 p.m. this evening to announce Tennessee’s hiring of Greg Schiano, but that it had been canceled due to the unprecedented fan backlash this afternoon:

I am told Tennessee was going to have a press conference tonight to announce the hiring of Schiano but canceled it due to protests. Unsure if it will be rescheduled tomorrow or if the deal has fallen through. One prominent booster wasn’t happy with Schiano hire.

— Jimmy Hyams (@JimmyHyams) November 26, 2017

At the time of the tweet, it was unclear whether the press conference was merely re-scheduled or canceled for good. Some reports say that it was Schiano who is balking due to the backlash and that the school still had the offer on the table.

It was early this afternoon that USA Today’s Dan Wolken first reported that Tennessee was finalizing a deal with Schiano. Schiano, who’s currently the defensive coordinator for Ohio State, was an assistant at Penn State while Jerry Sandusky was there, and, according to sworn testimony from former Penn State assistant Mike McQueary, was aware of Sandusky’s improper behavior with young boys. Based on that report from last July, fans on social media immediately voiced their displeasure and began ringing the bell to get the attention of others.

Fans painted The Rock in protest and then gathered on campus for an actual protest. At least one 4-star recruit de-committed. Tennessee state representatives then began to object to the hire on social media as well, and some reached out directly to the athletic department. Even the White House Press Secretary ended up weighing in:

As the fervor grew, word came that Schiano was having second thoughts due to the backlash:

Greg Schiano is currently concerned with the climate of the Tennessee fan base and the reaction towards reports of his contract being finalized at Tennessee. The deal may not get finalized.

— Dan Harralson (@danharralson) November 26, 2017

And now word comes from Low and others that the deal is in fact dead.

It is good to hear that it was Tennessee’s decision to back out of the Memorandum of Understanding. For too long today, it seemed that they were clearly not concerned about what fans think. No athletic department should abdicate any measure of authority to fans, but ignoring the customer is idiotic. There is no football program without fans. Sure, there will always be some, and many others will eventually forgive and forget, but intentionally plowing forward knowing that you’re alienating a huge percentage of your paying customer base is just dumb. And if he had been hired, he would have started with even less patience and even more scrutiny than most new head coaches.

So, where does Tennessee go from here? If it’s true that Tennessee did significant damage today to its ability to lure a coach to Knoxville, then that’s not the fault of the fan base, not today. This was a huge misstep by John Currie, and he never should have put the fan base in the position of having to rally to resist the hire. This one’s on him, not the fans, and not anticipating the fan reaction was a huge blind spot that will be a concern going forward.

If he wasn’t before, Currie better be listening now. He has to get this one right, and today, he was only hours away from doing the exact opposite of that.

Tennessee and Greg Schiano are reportedly in end stage contract talks for the Ohio State defensive coordinator to become the next coach in Knoxville. It may be finalized by the time I finish typing this post.

Schiano’s name came up here and there in this search, but no one’s name earned much real traction due to the secrecy athletic director John Currie operated with. We mentioned Schiano as a name generating some level of interest early on, as his profile generated the third-most clicks on our coaching hot board. As I noted at the time, his on-field record at Rutgers is noteworthy, as has been the performance of Ohio State’s defense. Later that same week I mentioned him as a dark horse candidate on Sports 180 (from November 17), again based on pageviews we were seeing.

In both places, we questioned the fit. I noted on the radio that I couldn’t find anyone who thought Schiano coming to Tennessee was a good idea.

In hindsight, I wish I had been more direct and less interested in being nice. And I think many of us who put our fingers to the keyboard about Tennessee simply didn’t spend more time on Schiano because we never really thought it would happen.

The questions about Schiano’s hire are not about his won/loss record. He was clearly a good coach at Rutgers and is a good defensive coordinator now at Ohio State, no matter how many games he won or lost in the NFL with Tampa Bay.

The questions about Schiano’s hire are not about Jon Gruden. No matter your level of belief in the #Grumors, if Jon Gruden married a cheerleader from Alabama instead and owned land in Tuscaloosa County, the uproar over Schiano would be and should be the same.

And the questions about Schiano’s hire are not about who else we could or could not get. Dan Mullen at Florida and Scott Frost at Nebraska is a tough blow. It would appear we swung and missed at bigger fish. We’ve already been underwhelmed with the announcement, twice. Many of us didn’t even know who Derek Dooley was a week before he was hired, and Butch Jones was met with something less than a lukewarm reception. Fans ultimately rallied around both well before their first game. This isn’t that.

You cannot hire Greg Schiano.

This is why, from The Washington Post in July of last year:

Former Penn State assistant coaches Greg Schiano and Tom Bradley knew that Jerry Sandusky, their colleague on Joe Paterno’s football staff, was acting improperly with young boys years before law-enforcement authorities were first notified, according to testimony from former Penn State assistant Mike McQueary that was unsealed Tuesday by a Philadelphia court.

Schiano denied the allegations. I don’t know who is telling what percentage of the truth. But the gravity of the situation cannot be ignored or glossed over at an introductory press conference.

Without the Penn State questions, there’s a laundry list of off-the-field questions from his tenure at Tampa Bay. With them, this is not a hire Tennessee can make. It would not be a hire Tennessee could make even if it wasn’t coming off a Title IX lawsuit.

As fans, we want to win. “Will it help us win?” is John Currie’s mission statement. But some things still do matter more than winning.

In college athletics, if not all sports, you cannot divorce the team from the coach. Rooting for your team ultimately and always means rooting for your coach. Even if you don’t like them personally or they’re not always the best fit, their success is almost always in the best interests of the program you care about so much.

Hiring Schiano with these allegations is not worth even the best case scenario on the field. Because he’s a good coach, he might win here. He might even win big. But you cannot divorce the coach from the team.

Cheering for your team means defending your coach, and good grief, I have defended Butch Jones. I have defended Derek Dooley. And I have defended Lane Kiffin. That’s quite a trio. I once argued Bruce Pearl should stay at Tennessee even if he received a show-cause up to a year. It’s what we do as fans, often to a fault.

I cannot defend Greg Schiano. I cannot minimize the allegations from Penn State. Tennessee fans will not.

This isn’t professional rabble-rousing. Negative reaction to Schiano isn’t the worst of the Tennessee fan base. It’s the better judgment of Tennessee’s human beings.

Tennessee has been trying to get this right for ten years. At the end of those ten years, we just finished the worst season in school history, winless in the SEC for the first time in the history of the league. We know disappointment and we know impatience better than most. Both of them, at times, bring out the worst in a fan base like ours.

And make no mistake:  today is not helpful for the program even if Schiano and the Vols ultimately and wisely walk away. John Currie’s power will have eroded, the list of those interested in this job will shrink, and the negotiating power will shift hard to the coach and agent. We are likely to end up further down the list with a bigger buyout.

But I will lose for ten more years while defending a coach I can believe in with a clear conscience before will-it-help-us-winning-it with Greg Schiano.

I have loved Tennessee all my life. And I believe in Tennessee, and believe it is bigger than even its athletic director. Even if today has ensured a better tomorrow is a few steps further away, I am hopeful Tennessee will come about that tomorrow in a better way.

Go Vols.

 

Add Texas A&M to the 2017 coaching carousel, as they have fired Kevin Sumlin after six seasons. They join Tennessee, Florida, Ole Miss (presumably), and Arkansas as SEC teams in the market for a new head coach. Sumlin had a 51-26 overall record at A&M, but had gone 8-5 each of the past three seasons and finished the regular season this year at 7-5.

Arkansas fired Bret Bielema this weekend, as well, as Bielema was coming off the field after a 48-45 loss to Missouri. That not only adds two more coaching vacancies in the SEC, it adds two more coaches to the candidate pool.

Tennessee hiring Greg Schiano as its next head coach is still an unofficial report at this time, but there has already been extreme reaction.

Former Vols commit 4-star cornerback Jaycee Horn has decommitted:

pic.twitter.com/6EvBZKfpUL

— JUNGLE BOY (@jayceehorn_10) November 26, 2017

At least two Tennessee state reps have also weighed in on the matter, including Jeremy Faison:

@UTKnoxville if you hire him, the backlash will be insurmountable and devastating to the University and the state.

— Jeremy Faison (@JeremyFaison4TN) November 26, 2017

Jason Zachary has gone one step further and actually tried to get John Currie’s attention, presumably via something other than social media:

I have reached out to @John_Currie and others in administration at UT expressing that WE as a TN Community do not approve of Schiano. #higherstandards

— Rep. Jason Zachary (@JasonZacharyTN) November 26, 2017

As I said, this is all reaction to an as-yet unofficial report. If the administration was floating this as a trial balloon, I think they have their answer.

Right on the heels of the (as yet unofficial) report that Tennessee is finalizing a deal with Greg Schiano to be its next head football coach, we now get word that Florida is finalizing a deal with Dan Mullen to become theirs.

The Tennessee fan base is melting down, and honestly, I don’t have anything to tell them. If the Schiano deal gets done and if social media is to be believed, then there will apparently be a lot fewer Vols fans in the world tomorrow morning.

 

USA Today’s Dan Wolken is reporting that Tennessee is finalizing a deal to make Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano its next head coach. Schiano apparently became the focus of the search in part due to Dan Mullen “stalling with the Vols in an attempt to wait and see what happens with the opening at Florida.”

With names like Dan Mullen, Matt Campbell, Mike Leach, and Chris Petersen still floating around as late as yesterday, fans are in an uproar, some for the wrong reasons and some for the right ones.

As of the time of this post, it is not yet official, but VolQuest has confirmed the USA Today report that Tennessee is finalizing a deal for Schiano.

How are you feeling about this?