Jeremy Pruitt stood tall at the podium Thursday night while being announced as the new coach at Tennessee, but it was nearly Greg Schiano there instead. Schiano -- the defensive coordinator of Ohio State -- had agreed to a memorandum of understanding with then-athletic director John Currie the Sunday after the regular season concluded, but Currie's signature was the only one on the document from the Tennessee side, according to Patrick Brown of 247 Sports.
Because chancellor Beverly Davenport or chief financial officer David Miller's signatures were not on it, the document is therefore not binding, according to KnoxNews.com.
The details of the proposed deal are staggering.
Currie intended to pay Schiano $4.4 million in the first year of a six-year deal, giving him a built-in raise of $50,000 per year that brought the total to $27 million over the span of the contract, not including incentives. The school would have owed Schiano 75 percent of the remainder of the contract if it decided to fire him without cause prior to the end of the deal.
This for a coach who went 68-67 at Rutgers, 28-48 in a Big East that saw Miami and Virginia Tech leave early in his tenure with the Scarlet Knights. Schiano was also 1-1 against the Butch Jones-led Cincinnati teams, including a 69-38 blowout loss in 2010. Both of those teams finished 4-8.
When news leaked of Schiano's imminent hire on Nov. 26, a fan uprising put an end to Currie's plan, sent Tennessee on a whirlwind coaching search that included rejections from Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy, Purdue's Jeff Brohm, NC State's Dave Doeren and numerous others.
Pruitt took over on Dec. 7 and will pull double-duty as Alabama's defensive coordinator during the Crimson Tide's playoff run before taking over full-time on Rocky Top.
