Tennessee football: Analysts think Vols now regret nixing Greg Schiano hire

Dear national media, Tennessee football fans don’t have any regret. The disaster of the Jeremy Pruitt era that brought about a notice of allegations and put the school in serious trouble doesn’t change a thing about what happened on 2017.

Just to refresh your memory, the Vols had fired Butch Jones. John Currie tried to sneak in hiring Greg Schiano on a Sunday when nobody was paying attention. A fan revolt ensued, and national media, which appeared to be in the tank for Schiano, torched UT.

Currie led a disastrous coaching search after that, which eventually resulted in his ouster. Phillip Fulmer took over and hired Jeremy Pruitt. The story died. Four years later, though, with Pruitt gone due to an NCAA investigation with major violations, some think it’s now worth dunking on Tennessee football.

Pat Forde of SI.com, a big Schiano defender at the time, wrote an article over the weekend saying the chickens have come home to roost for the Vols. He added that they got what they deserved. Twitter, meanwhile, decided to join in and think they were dunking on the Vols.

Here’s a message to everybody that got involved. Tennessee football is still better off right now than it would have been had it hired Schiano. The Vols now have Josh Heupel and are coming off a 7-6 season his first year with one of the best quarterbacks in the nation coming back.

Energy is all over the place on Rocky Top, and many outlets have the Vols projected to be a top 20 team going into this year. Even if you think the baggage tied to Schiano was unfair, let’s talk about what he has done on the field.

Does anybody honestly think Schiano would have UT as a potential top 20 team right now? He hasn’t yet had a winning season in two years with the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, and while the Big Ten East is the tougher division and the SEC East is the weaker division, it’s still the SEC.

Detractors would point out that the Vols wouldn’t be faced with all these scandals. Well, if you read the reports of the notice, which we wrote about here, you would know that there’s a great chance the Vols don’t face any serious punishment.

Also, even if they do, what is losing a bowl game anymore if you aren’t a College Football Playoff contender? Bowls are losing their luster. Scholarships are also less relevant with NIL deals. Simply put, the NCAA doesn’t seem likely to punish the Vols, and there’s not much they can do anyway.

As a result, any attempted dunk on Tennessee football is futile. It makes no sense, and the Vols are over a year removed from Pruitt. If you’re asking if Vol fans would do what they did in 2017 all over again, the answer is a resounding yes.