Tennessee football: 4 reasons beyond Sandusky Vols should have avoided Greg Schiano

The Penn State scandal should have been enough for Tennessee football to stay away from Greg Schiano. But here are four other reasons for the Volunteers.

The national media had this all wrong from the start. If you followed the news on Sunday night and all day Monday, you would think the Tennessee football fan base railroaded a saint who was unfairly accused of a connection to a scandal.

However, it’s nothing like that. For starters, Greg Schiano’s possible connection to the Penn State child sex abuse scandal is reason enough for a school that just settled a Title IX lawsuit related to sexual assault to avoid him.

But that’s not the only reason it was a massive mistake for John Currie and school officials to pursue Schiano Sunday. He would be a terrible fit for the Tennessee football program for a number of other reasons as well.

None of them carry the same weight that his current link to the Penn State scandal carries. However, they assure that he brings nothing to the table to supersede that scandal.

And for anybody that needs to understand how things work, that’s life. Everything is about weighing production against drawbacks.

Schiano’s production does not come close to outweighing the drawback of the Penn State scandal. In fact, his track record elsewhere is reason enough to avoid him.

That’s what we’re going to break down here. Let’s pretend, for a moment, that Schiano did not have that connection. Maybe he is telling the truth about it. Tennessee football still had no business going after him.

Schiano’s career as a head coach in college and the NFL along with his current tenure as a defensive coordinator still carries far too much baggage. And with all of that baggage, the Vols can’t take him on. After all, the long-term success of their program does matter. Right?

So let’s try to explain things a little better for the national media. They want to forgive him for the Penn State scandal? Fine. Here are four other reasons Tennessee football should have avoided Greg Schiano from the start.