Collegiate Sports

[blackcat]

This is not a surprise

Sources: Tennessee backs out of Greg Schiano hiring after campus protests

Tennessee has backed out of a memorandum of understanding with Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano to be the Volunteers' next football coach, sources told ESPN's Chris Low.

The memorandum of understanding was signed by both parties Sunday in Columbus, Ohio. Tennessee had planned to introduce Schiano at a news conference Sunday night.

But when news broke that Tennessee was close to finalizing a deal with Schiano earlier Sunday, there was public outcry among Tennessee fans, with people citing his alleged connection to the Jerry Sandusky era at Penn State.

About 100 people gathered on Tennessee's campus to protest a potential Schiano hire, with many of them holding signs with various messages such as "Schia-NO.''

At a rock on campus where students often paint various messages, the words "Schiano covered up child rape at Penn State'' appeared Sunday.
The Rock on Tennessee's campus pictured on Sunday hours after the possibility broke that the Vols were considering Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano for their head coaching vacancy. WVLT-TV Local 8 News

Schiano, Urban Meyer's defensive coordinator at Ohio State for the past two seasons, and Tom Bradley, defensive coordinator under recently fired UCLA coach Jim Mora, were both Penn State assistants under Joe Paterno during Sandusky's tenure.

Both have denied allegations of their knowledge of child abuse by Sandusky from a 2015 deposition by ex-Penn State assistant Mike McQueary.

Court documents of the deposition released in July 2016 said McQueary indicated Bradley said Schiano went to him in the early 1990s ``white as a ghost and said he just saw Jerry doing something to a boy in the shower.''

After the allegations became public, Meyer and Mora both defended their assistants' integrity.

Among those against Schiano's hiring were several Tennessee government officials.

"The head football coach at the University of Tennessee is the highest-paid state employee,'' Tennessee State Rep. Jeremy Faison said. "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.''

Faison was one of at least three state representatives who went on Twitter or issued statements to criticize the possibility of Tennessee hiring Schiano. Republican gubernatorial candidates Mae Beavers, Diane Black, Beth Harwell and Bill Lee also relayed their objections to a Schiano hire.

State Rep. Eddie Smith tweeted that "a Greg Schiano hire would be anathema to all that our University and our community stand for.''

http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/21579125/tennessee-volunteers-no-longer-hire-greg-schiano-head-coach