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Sex and the Convenient Excuse
Greg Schiano.
In his first year with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the team was a semi-respectable 7-9 but tumbled to 4-12 in his second year and ranked in the bottom of nearly every offensive category. He, and the General Manager who hired him, were shown the door. Unable to find college or pro work he ended up at Berkeley Preparatory School until Urban Meyer hired him as the Defensive Coordinator at the Ohio State University.
This weekend he was offered the Head Coaching position at Tennessee. When word leaked out, Vol Nation blew up. But no self-respecting university wants to let the inmates run the asylum. So what could they use for an out?
Along his path to the head coaching ranks Schiano spent time on Joe Paterno’s staff and was there when the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal brought down the legendary Penn State coach. Another assistant coach, Mike McQueary, testified in a civil suit that he heard through another coach that Schiano had actually witnessed Sandusky molesting a child. Schiano has consistently denied that.
Everyone who was against the hire has decided that this third-hand allegation was just the ticket. While supposedly Schiano and the Tennessee Athletic Director had come to a basic contract agreement and had signed a Memorandum of Understanding, the offer has now been rescinded.
Greg Schiano may or not be a good football coach but if he actually did not witness Sandusky engaging in illegal acts should the mob be able to use this excuse to have a veto over the rest of his professional life?
Published in Sports
We seem to have entered the era of mob rule. And since it seems more prevalent among the young, that doesn’t bode well for the future.
Guilty until proven innocent.
Sex scares, flashbacks to an earlier era.
Mob rule tends to be somewhat self-limiting.
But can do an awful lot of damage in the meantime.
As can one-man (one-person?) rule. But mob rule is inherently unstable.
I don’t know. Is there public push-back in Knoxville against this social media mob? If not, then the AD would be crazy not to reconsider his decision to offer the job to Schiano. Hiring a coach who undermines fan support would be foolish.
Obviously the AD is out of touch with reality. This is further evidenced by his clueless play for Chris Petersen.
The quote was taken from the Wikipedia article on the Penn State child sex abuse case. There are a lot of names in that article, and Schiano’s name is not one of them. The Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner is correct. Everyone was notified except the real police.
The University of Tennessee has taken the low road, that should be a warning to any coach that might be interested in accepting an offer to be the head coach of their football team.
Well, I live in Tennessee and every social media post I saw from the average fan was upset that UT would hire someone with any kind connection to Penn State because of the sex abuse scandal. Fans here have put up with a lot the last few years already. I think considering a controversial figure with a so-so record was basically considered an insult to the fans dignity.
Tennessee hasn’t been good since 1998. Does Peyton want to coach?
Glad to see this thread “re-emerge” after a brief disappearance.
UT foolishly dangled Jon Gruden, and the fan base was expecting a “big” hire. And Schiano was on the same staff as Sandusky. Caveat emptor.
Sorry DO, while you got some of the facts straight your conclusion is 180 degrees off. This is not a case of inmates running anything, this is a case of the investors/consumers of this program exerting some control over mediocre and unacceptable performance by this schools administration. We don’ owe this program fealty and we don’t have to accept whoever we are told to accept while continuing to shell out 1000’s of dollars for terrible results.
Two questions for those who think rescinding the offer was wrong:
First: if there was convincing proof that Schiano did in fact witness the abuse but didn’t report it, would that justify his being let go?
Second: if yes, how much proof would you need?
Personally, I think getting blacklisted based on a mob reaction to second-hand hearsay in a deposition is a horribly poor way to make staffing decisions.
But if there was ever a scandal so horrific that everyone who knew about it and didn’t speak up deserves to have their careers ruined, it’s the Sandusky affair.
So even without our current social media mob rule environment, anyone who worked in Penn State athletics at the time and anyone thinking of hiring someone who worked in Penn State athletics at the time needs to get well in front of this issue before entering new employment. It’s basic common sense and due diligence.
Is that fair to somebody incorrectly named as a witness to the abuse? No, but life isn’t fair either – as Sandusky’s victims can also attest.
To be completely accurate he had a total record of 68-67 at Rutgers, had one 11-2 season that resulted in a #12 ranking and never won the Big East. Yes he was a hot name after the 12-1 season.
This completely whitewashes his tenure at Tampa. Perhaps you aren’t aware of the controversy he stirred up there. While there he leaked info about his QB getting addiction treatment, he bullied players constantly (former players there hate his guts), told his defensive players to try to strip the ball and dive at opposing players who were in the victory formation resulting in general disdain around NFL coaching circles, especially Tom Caughlin who he was in a heated exchange with) Those factors contributed to his record, losing the locker room, and getting fired after 2 years.
Thanks for calling us “inmates”. We are the ones that fund this program. We are the ones that buy tickets, gear, travel to games, fill up a stadium with over 100,000 fans, represent the school all over the country and even the world…..so to you we are peons, rednecks, “inmates” that need to just do as we are told? Well here’s the deal, just like in the last presidential election the peons aren’t taking the elite’s crap any longer. We don’t HAVE to accept any coach that worked with Sandusky, EVER. We also don’t have to accept a bully and blowhard for a coach (just had one, thanks). This wasn’t a damn excuse, it was a bridge too far. If people in the elite national sports media don’t like it they can go…….
We don’t want him here.
Mischaracterization of what happened. This was not a mob, it was a fanbase that rose up against “winning at all costs” and then is being attacked for it by the national media who is protecting their own (the symbiotic relationship between media and coaches to maintain access is crazy)
D1 programs are constantly criticized for ignoring any scandal, any problem in order to win. We felt like hiring anyone named in court documents as someone who knew about Sandusky’s behavior was too much. So now we are being attacked for NOT excusing any behavior in order to win. Ugh….
I know you are making a point but Tennessee had 9 wins previous last 2 years, 10 wins in 2003, 2004, 2007 and 11 wins and went to the conference championship game in 2001. They won the National Championship in 1998. While I will freely admit they have been underachieving for a decade (hence the frustration of the fan base) they haven’t been bad since 1998. lol
p.s. I don’t think Peyton would be a particularly good coach, most players turned coach were more the role player type.
p.p.s. Peyton wasn’t the QB in 1998, that was Tee Martin. He is the O.C. at USC and a possible candidate here.
For almost 40 years, Penn State protected a known serial child rapist and that cover-up spanned just about everyone at the university. Almost all of the guilty parties escaped punishment and many like Schiano are raking in million$. Congrats to the folks in Tennessee for taking their stand. I’m sure the rape cover up was a mere excuse for being angry about a perceived bad hire by many but still.
I have a love-hate relationship with college football. While I have made a decent living covering the game, it’s big business in a taxpayer supported university. It’s just not Tennessee fans whose dollars support the program. In many instances NCAA coaches are the highest paid public employees in a state.
Most want to take ownership of the football program yet don’t exert the same over any other part of the university. When was the last time taxpayers revolted over the behavior of the Dean of the Humanities Department?
Something tells me if they tried hiring Nick Saban with the same allegations against him you wouldn’t be upset.
Mike,
Just sue the bastards.
Regards,
Jim
Doubtlessly win a coach wins it absolves many flaws in the eyes of fans (example Penn St). You can’t have it both ways though and criticize them for overlooking issues in pursuit of winning games and then criticize them for actually considering off the field issues when it comes to a hire. It’s also a different dynamic when you are considering a coach in place and a potential hire. Penn St has had 2 chances to hire Schiano themselves and seemed to have passed on him and I haven’t seen Ark, Texas A&M, UCLA, Florida, Ole Miss, ASU etc calling him either.
As far as criticizing other departments in the university, those programs are not funded by contributions and ticket sales not to mention they obviously have less publicity. There was a publicized effort at UT in their “diversity” office to implement the nonsense of gender neutral pronouns etc that was met with a large public outcry. When things are brought to public view there have been many instances outside of sports where the taxpayers have shouted “enough!”
I agree that college football is a huge behemoth and the salaries of what are basically gym teachers have skyrocketed out of control. That’s a separate discussion along with paying players in what is now basically the NFL farm league. lol
Thanks, Concretevol, for answering my question from #7. Clearly, the AD chose the wrong guy for the job.
Eric LeGrand, a man who knows Schiano very well, thinks Vol fans should be ashamed of themselves.
@concretevol By the way, I wasn’t trying to be deceptive on limiting an examination of Schiano’s record to his last 7 years at Rutgers. That program was in such a shambles when he took it over the first three years were hardly devoted to winning. You know that, too.
You also know that many successful college coaches bomb in the NFL. Would you take Nick Saban at Tennessee? Damn straight you would. Would you be bothered by his 15-17 record in the NFL? No, you would not.
Anthony Lubrano is a man who has made quite a bit of fame for himself by being the biggest supporter for bringing back the Joe Paterno Statue and has openly attacking Sundusky’s victims. There was a NYT article this past summer that revealed that Paterno knew back in the 1970’s that Sandusky was a pervert but you know, when there’s a game to be won……. Paterno was the king of State College. He owned the university, the police, the local gov’t, the university brass and the local media………….except Sara Ganim, who bravely broke the story that for decades was ignored. Lubrano is a disgraceful human being who has led a disgraceful faction of PSU alumni in white-washing the evil that happened there for decades. He has no clue what integrity or strong character is. He is exemplary of the type of animal that allowed Penn State to feed children to a known rapist just so they could feel better about their football team.
There’s nothing wrong with vouching for Coach Schiano and defending his character, but that last paragraph is really tacky. This Trustee is badmouthing officials from another University for no good reason. Perhaps he needs a reminder of what a Trustee’s role is and leave UT hiring decisions to UT officials.
Then why is he still a trustee?
My solution to that statue was that it should be put in a blast furnace, melted down to slag, and then put right back where it was with a new plaque explaining in detail everything that happened. And they have to keep it there as long as they want to stay in the NCAA.
EJ,
Regards,
Jim