Tennessee football fans’ Schiano protests NOT about Gruden. Here’s proof.

Tennessee football fans protesting the hire of Greg Schiano has nothing to do with wanting Jon Gruden to coach the Volunteers. Here’s proof.

Greg Schiano is clearly not going to be the next Tennessee football head coach. Fans, former Vols, alumni, and even politicians made sure of that with their protests on Sunday.

But although his .500 Big East record combined with the mention of his name related to the Penn State child sex abuse scandal should have been reason enough for Vols fans to not want him, it didn’t seem to be good enough for the national media. Instead, they took a simplistic approach.

It apparently was all about wanting Jon Gruden or to a lesser degree Dan Mullen or Chip Kelly. And it had nothing to do with these concerns, according to the “experts.”

Paul Finebaum then went on First Take Monday morning and said as much, noting that Tennessee football fans were mad they didn’t get Gruden or to a lesser degree Chip Kelly or Dan Mullen.

“He was never going to take this job, and they fell for that,” he said of Gruden and Vols fans.

More from Vols Football

• How to Win a GUARANTEED $200 Bonus Betting Just $5 on the Vols vs. Florida!
• Tennessee Football at Florida: Five Keys to a Vols Victory
• Week 3 SEC Power Rankings: Did Tennessee Football’s Win Help At All?
• Week 3 AP Polls: Why Did Tennessee Football Drop in the Polls?
• Tennessee Football: Top Five Performers in 30-13 Win vs. Austin Peay

Here’s the brutal twist of irony, though. Finebaum himself is proof that this narrative is a complete and utter lie.

Gruden wasn’t even on Tennessee football fans’ radar until Finebaum validated that rumor while responding to a caller on his Oct. 5 show earlier this year. Finebaum said then Tennessee’s first choice would be Gruden if they fired then-head coach Butch Jones, and he said nothing of it being a pipe dream.

It wasn’t until then that the “Grumors” spread like wildfire. So it’s hilariously ironic that the guy who started the “Grumors” is now the guy accusing Vols fans of having their hearts too set on him.

If that’s the case, then why were Tennessee football fans calling for Jones’s firing before then? Did they not have replacement ideas? Of course they did. And it wasn’t just Mullen or Kelly.

Jones hit the hot seat immediately after his horrific coaching failures against the Florida Gators earlier this year. The seat reached boiling point on Sept. 30, when Tennessee lost at home 41-0 to Georgia. Entering the bye week, that’s when fans began calling to let him go.

Between Sept. 30 and Finebaum starting the “Grumors” on Oct. 5, there were numerous stories about who could replace Jones.

We named our top five candidates here on Oct. 5.

Zach Ragan of fellow FanSided site TennTruth had been updating his coaching board starting with a post right after Tennessee lost to Florida.

Clay Travis listed his top coaches for Tennessee football to pursue in this Oct. 1 post.

And Ty Duffy of The Comeback listed his in this post on Oct. 2.

Notice something similar about all these posts? Not one of them mentions Gruden as a candidate for Tennessee football.

Again, this is proof that such a rumor never started until after Finebaum.

Yes, Kelly and Mullen were on the list. But that list also included Bobby Petrino, Bob Stoops, Mike Leach, Jeff Brohm, Les Miles, Jim Bob Cooter, James Franklin, and Mike Gundy.

Other names that have also come up before Schiano are Mike Norvell, Tee Martin and Willie Taggart.

Are we to believe that all of those coaches rejected the Vols, and that’s why Currie settled on Schiano? Of course not. The only reasonable rejections to believe would be Stoops, Franklin and Gundy.

So don’t try to put Tennessee football fans’ protests of Schiano on a Gruden pipe dream. If you want to say it was more about his shortcomings on the field than the Penn State scandal, you’d be wrong, but it’s still a fair point. And Yes, Vols fans bought into the Grumors after Finebaum started them.

But the anger over potentially hiring Schiano had nothing to do with not getting Gruden or even Mullen or Kelly. Before the Grumors, the Vols were still interested in plenty of other coaches to replace Jones. Mullen and Kelly were among them, but so were numerous others. Not one of them was Greg Schiano.