Greg Schiano will not be the next coach at the University of Tennessee.
According to Bruce Feldman of Sports Illustrated and a report from Volquest, talks between Schiano and the school have broken down following unprecedented backlash from Vols fans after news of Schiano's possible hire leaked on Sunday.
SOURCES: There is some talk going on now between Greg Schiano's reps & #Tennessee about an exit strategy of what has become a very volatile situation. Paperwork was in progress. “They’ve spooked them all,” said a source. "It's a hot mess."
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) November 27, 2017
Yahoo Sports' Pete Thamel sheds even more light on the situation.
Tennessee officials have called Greg Schiano's representatives and told them they are backing out of their agreement to make him the next football coach at Tennessee. There's a signed Memorandum of Understanding between Schiano and athletic director John Currie, which they agreed to and signed in Columbus earlier today.
The crux of the backlash surrounded Schiano's possible but unsubstantiated thin ties to the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse at Penn State.
Former Penn State assistant Mike McQueary testified that he was told by another Penn State assistant, Tom Bradley, that Schiano "had come into [Bradley's] office white as a ghost and said he just saw Jerry [Sandusky] doing something to a boy in the shower." Prosecuting attorneys in the Sandusky trial did not investigate the claims about Schiano because it was deemed to be hearsay, and there was not enough supporting evidence. Both Bradley and Schiano denied the incident ever happened after McQueary's testimony was released.
Tennessee fans were irate about the reported decision made by athletic director John Currie. Some of the Vols faithful protested via march to the university's athletic center. State representatives tweeted that they would not support the football team any longer. Other fans painted The Rock in Tennessee, set fire to mattresses and immediately called for Currie to be fired. Former Vol defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth said he would no longer support the school financially or otherwise because leaders were no longer taking football seriously.
Schiano has been the defensive coordinator at Ohio State since the beginning of the 2016 season. He spent 11 seasons at Rutgers, taking over one of the most difficult jobs in college football at the time, and took the team to six bowl games during his tenure. He followed that up with a failed two-year experiment with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
