Quite a messy situation
Schiano takes the fall in Tennessee foul-up
It’s as though Bill Belichick is providing live daily updates on the college football coaching controversy that’s boiling over in Tennessee.
On Sunday, following the Patriots’ 35-17 victory against the Miami Dolphins, Belichick was asked about rumors that Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano was about to be named head coach at Tennessee.
We can all agree Belichick hasn’t been much for responding to rumors through the years. The man hasn’t been much for responding to through the years. Yet when asked about Tennessee, he said that Schiano is “a tremendous coach . . . he’s done a great job at Ohio State. He’s one of the very best coaches I think in our profession. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Greg and the way he runs his program and the job that he does.”
Yesterday morning, after it was made clear Schiano will be the next head coach of the Volunteers, and for reasons that are decidedly Belichick took his winnings from Sunday and pushed all of the chips to the middle of the table.
Asked if he would vouch for Schiano’s “character,” Belichick said, “... 100 percent. Yes, 100 percent.
“I think I said it pretty thoroughly yesterday. I have great respect and think he’s a great football coach. I’m not really involved in any other situation, but speaking about him as a coach and a person, (I have) the utmost respect and zero reservations. Zero.”
Not only is Belichick showing support for Schiano, it’s also a haymaker directed right smack between the eyes of the University of Tennessee, especially athletic director John Currie, who seemingly caved to fan outcry regarding the hiring of Schiano.
As soon as word got out that Tennessee was moving on from Schiano, there was immediate speculation the reason for doing so was because perhaps the school came up with something suggesting the coach had knowledge of the Jerry Sandusky scandal when the two worked on Joe Paterno’s staff at Penn State.
Indeed, some protesters said as much, with someone scrawling, “Schiano covered up child rape at Penn State,” on The Rock, an iconic symbol on the Tennessee campus used by folks to print out all kinds of messages.
Currie, in yesterday’s statement, went to great lengths to point out that Schiano was thoroughly vetted during the hiring process. That’s understandably good news. However, it presents Tennessee — not just Currie, but the entire school — as weak and pliable. Rather than making a choice then defending it in the face of public criticism, we now have Currie and his statement about how Schiano “. . . received the highest recommendations for character, family values and commitment to academic achievement and student-athlete welfare,” and oh, by the way, we’re still looking for a new football coach.
One of the toughest things about running a high-profile sports program, be it professionally or at the college level (and, in parts of Texas, the high school level as well), is making decisions that run the risk of being hugely unpopular with the public.
Those are precisely the type of decisions real leaders make. They are the type of decisions real leaders make without fear of reprisals. For if you make it your business to always side with those who march the hardest, who holler the loudest, who tweet the nastiest, it means you’re always going to be the person whose main concern is your own job and/or reputation.
You might have forgotten, but Terry Francona was not a particularly popular choice when Theo Epstein hired him to manage the Red Sox in 2004. Francona had only one previous job as a big league manager — four seasons with the Phillies, four seasons. But the young general manager was dragging us into a fantasy land of analytics and gingerbread castles, and Epstein needed a pilot for his magic carpet. He went against popular sentiment by choosing Francona.
You might have forgotten, too, that Patriots fans weren’t exactly singing “Happy Days Are Here Again” when, after yet another round of Boston vs. New York name-calling, Belichick finally was liberated from the Jets to become head coach in Foxboro. I won’t overstate things by suggesting there was rioting in the streets, but come on: In Belichick’s one shot as head coach he guided the Cleveland Browns to a combined 3644 record in five seasons. Plus, Belichick was coming off his emotional press conference in which he famously resigned as “HC of the NYJ.”
Jets president Steve Gutman said Belichick was in great “turmoil,” a clever way of nudging people into wondering if the coach had suffered some kind of breakdown.
The Krafts could have made a safer choice. Marty Schottenheimer, owner of a 231-145 record in 15 seasons with the Browns and Kansas City Chiefs, was available. The Krafts made the mother of all correct calls when they went with Belichick.
In discussing the cases of Francona and Belichick, we have the benefit of hindsight. As for Greg Schiano, we’ll never know if he would have been the right man at Tennessee.
What we do know is that he was the right man as of Sunday afternoon.
But then some people began yelling and screaming, and in short order, Greg Schiano wasn’t the right man any more.