I agree with people being able to voice their displeasure about Schiano being the next UT coaching hire. It was much more than just upset fans who voiced their concerns and displeasure when they heard about the pending announcement of his hire.
The problems this may create could be very severe and this could also make getting a great coach hired much more difficult. I'm no legal expert, but there may very well be some financial problems that UT may have to work through because of the "Memorandum of Understanding" that Currie and Schiano signed.
Did Currie not seek out the necessary support from the University for Schiano before becoming that involved with the man? Whose overseeing Currie?
Do the UT fans suddenly feel empowered and believe that they can gather and protest every potential hire in the future if they disagree? This could be very problematic. Especially with today's society and the way people are quick to react and judge. There is simply no coaching candidate out there that will make everyone and all UT fans happy. I would hate to see next year's football season begin and fans protesting outside the stadium at every home game because they don't like the new coach, or disagree with the person who gets the job. As we all have seen here lately, people protest everything imaginable!
Social media revealed itself in a very crude way yesterday. UT fans need to realize the impact they are having in this process, both negatively and positively. The negativity was taken to extreme levels yesterday and that is not good for the University and/or the process. One thing I have learned as a retired military veteran and a retired law enforcement officer, being negative and behaving negative only creates more negativity and it does more harm than good!
What potential coaching hire would want to be exposed to potential backlash and fans protesting before they even sign their first recruit, or even coach their first UT game? Even though I am glad they are not following through with hiring Schiano for my own reasons, other potential future candidates may not want to even come to UT now because of how Schiano's hiring/firing went down. Much more thought should have went into this process before it got to the point it reached yesterday.
I realize some may think I am being judgmental, but I think UT should take a good hard look at John Currie and how he has handled this situation. I know that if I make bad decisions where I work that potentially cost my employer millions of dollars (or even thousands of dollars), I am going to be fired very quickly. My salary is much less than John Currie's salary, by the way! In my opinion, he's getting paid big money to do a very important job with a lot of responsibility so I hold him accountable for how this process is being handled. The University must do what is necessary to get control of this situation immediately. Moving forward from this point, the process needs to be done correctly and professionally. The people tasked with handling this process need to realize the long term impact they are having on the future of the UT VOLS football program, and all UT sports.
I am a lifelong UT fan and I must admit it was embarrassing and disappointing the way the events played out yesterday. The whole season this year has been an embarrassment to the University of Tennessee and the fans. The people in responsible positions at UT don't need to continue to do things that are embarrassing to the institution and/or the fans. Tennessee fans deserve for the process to be handled in a professional manner and expect the UT administration to be professional. The institution needs to better manage the process and ensure that this type of scenario does not play out again.
Just my opinion!
