Drama Runs Abound in Knoxville

The Tennessee Volunteers are coming off of their worst season in school history, going winless in their conference for the first time since joining the Southeastern Conference in 1933, and also recording their first ever eight-loss season. During the course of this season, head coach Butch Jones was let go after a demoralizing loss to Missouri. The Volunteers finished the season under interim head coach Brady Hoke, and lost the rest of their games, including their last conference game against the Vanderbilt Commodores.

Tennessee has been seeking a new head coach since the end of their season, and are unlikely to remove the interim title on Brady Hoke, as they look to bring in a new coach to lead their team to success in the long haul. At one point in time, many believed the search may be over, as Tennessee was in line to hire Greg Schiano.

Schiano is the defensive coordinator for Ohio State, and a former head coach at Rutgers, where he sported a record of 94 wins and 93 losses. He also had a stint with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he was fired after accumulating an overall record of 11 wins and 21 losses. This, however, was met with massive fan protests, due to Schiano’s alleged involvement of secrets being kept for controversial former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, who engaged in a variety of inappropriate acts with children.

As of the start of December, Tennessee is back at square one in their search for a new head coach. News has been broken on Friday that the University of Tennessee has parted ways with athletic director John Currie after only eight months. So, in addition to searching for a head coach, the university is also seeking a new athletic director.

Knoxville has been home to an off-season almost as disastrous as the actual season put out by the Volunteers. We’ve seen a mob mentality preventing the hiring of a coach, the firing of an athletic director, yet no signings have occurred.