Tennessee had never before lost eight games in a season. So you may have thought that Saturday’s home blowout loss to Vanderbilt was the low point in the history of Tennessee football.
You’d be wrong. Shoot, it wasn’t even the low point of the weekend for the Volunteers, who clearly need to Tighten Up.
After an abysmal season, the only reason for optimism for Tennessee fans was the thought of a fresh start with a new coach who everyone could get behind.
Then Athletics Director John Currie decided to offer the job to Greg Schiano.
The same Greg Schiano who was 68-67 at Rutgers; who was 11-21 with the Tampa Bay Bucs; whose bush league tactics once led Tennessee legend Peyton Manning to cuss him out on the field; who court records indicate was aware of the child sex abuse by Jerry Sandusky when they were both assistants at Penn State.
But let’s not fool ourselves. The outrage over Schiano has as much to do with his record on the field as it does the atrocities that happened at Penn State and what Schiano may or may not have known at the time.
The response to Currie’s decision was so swift and so severe that the offer was rescinded. Now Schiano is claiming that he will sue and wants a buyout of the contract he agreed to with Tennessee.
Losing to Vanderbilt to drop to 4-8 in bad enough. Botching the next hire has turned out to be even more of a debacle.
Who do you think needs to Tighten Up? Call in now. The caller with the best and most entertaining suggestion will earn a $25 gift card from Wintzell’s Oyster House.
For Threaded Fasteners, I’m Randy Kennedy with Tighten Up.
