Greg Schiano was about to get back in the head coaching ranks.
Now, issues with his 2015 deposition that was unsealed last year as part of the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal at Penn State may have ruined his chances.
Schiano is currently the defensive coordinator for the Ohio State Buckeyes, and was reportedly set to be named the Tennessee Volunteers head coach on Sunday.
In fact, ESPN reports that the former Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach had signed a “memorandum of understanding” with Tennessee’s athletic director, basically saying the parties had come to an agreement to give Schiano the job.
However, once reports started to spread about Schiano taking the reins at Tennessee, fans and state politicians became outraged at the decision, mostly because of Schiano’s ties to the Sandusky investigation and incidents.
Some even vandalized a rock outside Neyland Stadium, spray painting the words “Schiano covered up child rape at Penn State.”
Schiano worked as an assistant under defensive coordinator Sandusky at Penn State from 1990 to 1995.
According to ESPN, the deposition that many fans were citing included former Penn State assistant coach Mike McQueary’s testimony that another Penn State coach, Tom Bradley, had told McQueary that Schiano had talked of seeing Sandusky abusing a boy in the early 1990s.
However, Schiano was never implicated by any other party over the course of the Sandusky investigation.
Last year, Schiano told ESPN’s Adam Schefter, “I never saw any abuse, nor had reason to suspect any abuse, during my time at Penn State.”
Sandusky is currently in prison, serving 30 to 60 years for the sexual abuse.
Now, Schiano is out of the running for the job and the Tennessee Volunteers are looking to pick up the pieces.
Tennessee chancellor Beverly Davenport released a statement about the hiring fiasco Monday, saying, “I deeply regret the events of yesterday for everyone involved.”
Speculation around the industry is that Tennessee will have a very difficult time filling their opening due to backing out on Schiano, and have already reportedly been rebuffed by Duke head coach David Cutcliffe.
