WaPo: The Tennessee-Schiano fiasco shows the charming and chilling power of fans
There is a great article from the Washington Post that was in yesterday's Chicago Tribune.
LINK: Tennessee-Schiano fiasco shows the charming and chilling power of fans
In the ancient, sacred American tenets, there's a handy sliding scale of morality, including categories such as "12-0 morality" and "6-6 morality," that can help us process kerfuffles such as that big one Sunday in Tennessee.
Twelve-and-oh morality is a looser, more understanding morality. If a football coach has gone 12-0 or has shown a capacity to go 12-0, that coach can help himself to a wider array of sins, actual or alleged. A dreadful personality can be translated fluidly as necessary intensity. If this morality had a credo, it might be: You get the wins now; we'll think up the rationalizations later.
Six-and-six morality allows for indignation and even punishment for sins. It is akin to 3-and-4-with-a-boring-offense morality, which was invoked this season at Florida, where a coach went 3-4 and had a boring offense and got fired for making shocking comments. In 12-0 morality, it would go like this: You claim the death threats now; we'll go find them later — staging them, if necessary.
A 6-6 coach must always behave better than a 12-0 coach.
In the art of hiring coaches, fans are uncommonly lousy.
They're lousy because they're in love (with their schools and programs) and, as everyone knows, people in love have no judgment — all the judgment having seeped from the brain once love whooshed in and began flooding and disorienting the organ. That's how you can drive through so many college towns and hear the lovelorn on the radio, baying about how every star coach desires to come to this beautiful, beloved town.
Maybe Tennessee should pursue Bill Belichick.
I couldn't help but think of Michigan when reading this article. (There's much more delightful snark, and I thought it was well written.) Imhe, Michigan was in grave danger of becoming an irrelevant has-been, a school whose glory was all in the past. We have sometimes viewed ND in this way. MSU had a brief shining moment in the 50's and 60's, which passed by a long time ago.
I love Michigan, and greatly enjoy Michigan football. The team was regularly very good while I attended, and for more than a dozen years after I left. However, I think Michigan football was in a very bad place, and I give Harbaugh lots of leeway for the last three years. We had become irrelevant. As much as I gnash my teeth at two "if only" losses each to MSU and OSU, we are once again competing, if not all the way there yet.
I am 100% behind the proprietors and staff and mods who have had it with the irrational rabid crazy fanbase. I thought this article was a great picture of that kind of fanbase, albeit without a single mention of Michigan.
November 28th, 2017 at 7:08 PM ^
November 28th, 2017 at 7:15 PM ^
Minnesota gets wins over Iowa from time to time, and UM manages a win over MSU from time to time, but neither is a year in, year out expectation.
The trajectory of the programs is undeniably different, but I’d still say the two programs have been more alike than different over the last 20 years
November 28th, 2017 at 6:16 PM ^
Michigan had a better year than Minnesota in 2017 because Michigan went 8-4, Minnesota went 5-7, and Michigan beat Minnesota. Calling both Michigan's and Minnesota's seasons "bad" and treating them as equals is to hide important differences.
November 28th, 2017 at 7:22 PM ^
There is no doubt UM has a distinctly different trajectory at present and there is more reason for hope in the UM fan base than in Minnesota’s. I just think the lack of success at both schools is very similar.
November 28th, 2017 at 10:15 PM ^
It's a bad comparison. Let it go man.
November 28th, 2017 at 11:38 PM ^
No, let him die on that hill.
November 29th, 2017 at 1:20 AM ^
November 28th, 2017 at 6:26 PM ^
Didn't Michigan and a bunch of other teams just crush Minnesota. That comparison is just plain stupid. Michigan is loaded and could easily go undefeated next year. Minnesota will be lucky to make a bowl game ina easier division. Not even close in any way and that comparison is ludicrous and wacko.
Buckeye fans welcome guys like schiano with open arms and i despise that university and fan base, but not even close to Ped States. Every buckeye fan I have ever met was just plain weird and quite mentally stunted. The only one at work got fired for stalking the ugliest nurse there. LOL.
November 28th, 2017 at 6:49 PM ^
We are closer to Iowa than Minnesota. Middling team that occassional has a decent year and a BCS bowl.
Iowa however has beaten Ohio, a divisional crown, and been a play away from winning a Big ten title and going to the CFP
we are becoming Northwestern with a bigger stadium if things dont change soon
November 28th, 2017 at 10:46 PM ^
You can write something like this.... then take a look at it... and then not post it.
Best advice I can give. Most of my thoughts are never posted
November 28th, 2017 at 5:18 PM ^
November 28th, 2017 at 6:52 PM ^
THEY ALL KNEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. They didn't all witness Sandusky's evil, but that shit was well known and they all continued to go about business as usual. Schiano probably saw something, but if not he still knew and continued to work there. Business as usual because he is a schino man!!. Johnson was there for a short time with Sandusky and I am sure he heard about it also. That clown out in ucla knew and he lied about it. Paterno lied about it.They all knew and chose to do zero. That school should not even have a football team ever and the fact that they do shows money and power will always outwiegh a prolapsed rectum.
It always amazes me how many people would just rather pretend evil does not exist. Make no mistake it is all around you and that shit that went down at ped state was more well known than most on here will ever believe. The coaching staff just looked at it as just taking one for the team. Sandusky was predator of the worst kind and ped state provided the high fence hunting grounds. This wasn't a one time thing, it went on for years and every coach there knew and didn't care. I worked around Sandusky types for two decades and have read the files. I also would rather pretend that this stuff does not happen, but these guys are not incarcerated for nothing. I am sure the staff was like come on man he could not have been doing that. You sure you really saw that schiano man. Nahhhh I guess not. Rythmic slapping noises...........schiano man.
November 28th, 2017 at 5:22 PM ^
I don't find anything about the entire situation "charming". How did the author come up with that adjective?
November 28th, 2017 at 5:29 PM ^
November 28th, 2017 at 5:38 PM ^
Idk what you heard Paul Finebaum say, but he was pretty scathing in his response to Tennessee's actions. Called Currie spineless in the process.
I know he's probably more apt to defend his alma mater, but it doesn't seem like he's siding with the Clay Travises of the world on this one.
November 28th, 2017 at 5:43 PM ^
Has spawned an age of the Salem Witch Trials: Version 2.0.
November 28th, 2017 at 6:02 PM ^
Schiano would have been a good hire for what it's worth.
That being said, Tennessee fans have just gone down to the bottom of the barrel. Instead of letting their AD do his job, they decide to use the pretext of the Penn State scandal of which Schiano wasn't involved, to cover for the fact they just didn't want Schiano to be their head coach. That is a new kind of low and I really hope that program completely rots away.
November 28th, 2017 at 6:08 PM ^
November 29th, 2017 at 12:04 AM ^
What do you mean "what does he represent?"
November 28th, 2017 at 6:33 PM ^
November 28th, 2017 at 6:07 PM ^
If it was Gruden who allegedly saw the Sandusky episode and wanted to come to Tennessee, you would never have heard a peep from Tennessee fans.
They didn't want Schiano because they think he's a bad coach, not because they think he's an unethical coach. The Sandusky hearsay thing is just a convenient out.
November 28th, 2017 at 7:04 PM ^
That I believe, but I will take any oppurtunity to make osu and there fans look bad. If it looks like Tennesee holds there coaches to a higher moral standards than osu than so be it. I don't think Schiano is unethical, he just chose to not help a young man getting raped by another football coach.
November 29th, 2017 at 12:11 AM ^
"The Sandusky hearsay thing is just a convenient out."
But it's much more than that. They used the truly tragic events at Penn State to simply cover for the fact they didn't want Schiano as coach. They manipulated this tragedy for their own selfish purposes.
November 28th, 2017 at 7:41 PM ^
Where a bunch of national putzes call it "scary" that fans rise up and say "this is unacceptable" when some know-nothing empty suit tries to screw them. Schiano was an objectively bad choice to be their head coach before you even get to the baggage that comes with being on the same staff as Sandusky and Paterno, or add in the abject embarrassing and abusive way he coached Tampa Bay in the NFL (the first job he'd ever had with actual media scrutiny btw). The idea that it's even acceptable that anyone who was ever on that staff would be considered for a head coaching job is an embarrassment.
It's not scary that people have a way to respond quickly and loudly to being screwed. It's a good thing. It's also an outrageous lie to frame this as if C*** Tr**** whipped up a bunch of rubes on Twitter to scream online and it changed anything. The big money donors pulled, and they weren't on Twitter.
The story here that everyone in the national media is ignoring so they can dogpile on some hillbillies is that an AD with a history of questionable decisions tried to hire a guy with no similar prospects at a job the level of Tennessee based on a personal relationship with him without telling ANYONE who mattered at his school. He didn't clue in the donors, the high level faculty, nobody. He didn't clue the local media either. It blew up in his dumb face and everyone wants to blame the fans for it. It'd be bewildering if I didn't remember people being "concerned" about a "mob mentality" during The Fall of Brandon.
November 28th, 2017 at 7:54 PM ^
November 28th, 2017 at 10:39 PM ^
Where we're all having this pointless argument about legalese and whatnot instead of just realizing "oh my God he worked for Joe Paterno AND he worked there while Sandusky was actually a coach? Jesus no way can he be head coach." Like the idea that anyone on that staff has ever gotten another job period is a bit strange, let alone someone from there being put in charge of a football team.
But I think the reason you've seen a flood of national guys to defend it is kinda simple, and sad. His agent is Jimmy Sexton, and all these guys whose careers are built around getting news everyone will have 10 minutes earlier because that's a thing someone cares about for some reason don't want to cross him.
November 28th, 2017 at 9:38 PM ^
November 28th, 2017 at 6:49 PM ^
Brian isn't going to like the source of this article...
November 28th, 2017 at 6:51 PM ^
Let's be real: they didn't have to listen to the fans. So the decision was still in the hands of the powers that be.
The fans expressed their opinion and exercised their power. That's a good not bad thing.
November 28th, 2017 at 8:41 PM ^
I doubt the fans reaction would have scuttled the hire. Nor do I think it would have led to Schiano getting hired. The school and Schiano would have been spared a lot of embarrassment. The AD instead did this on his own and found no support among the donors, the administration or the fans. The fans will get all the blame and/or credit, but they were by no means alone in opposing the hire.
November 29th, 2017 at 12:17 AM ^
that at least TWICE truly thought Jon Gruden might be their head coach is certainly one that should have some "power" in determining the next head coach at Tennessee. What a bright group of people with a clear understanding of their school and football program.
November 28th, 2017 at 7:06 PM ^
November 28th, 2017 at 7:14 PM ^
November 28th, 2017 at 10:56 PM ^
I can't believe how many Michigan fans think Duffy coached at Michigan.
November 28th, 2017 at 7:08 PM ^
Bottom line this is not good for osu either and I am all good with that. Whats new with the meyer investigation into the tonya harding incident. LoL. What a fuckin joke.
November 28th, 2017 at 7:16 PM ^
Virtue signalling ....... you sure do see a lot of it these days.
A subset of Tennessee fans got to get rid of Schiano while also making themselves feel good about what good people they are.
You don't get to pat yourself on the back as much if you make the AD change his mind through a forceful argument of "Schiano shouldn't be our next HC, because (1) he has no real ties to the region, (2) he was terrible with Tampa Bay, and (3) when you dig deeper, he was unable to take Rutgers to the next step after lifting them out of the pit. Why do we want that when we aspire to return to college football's elite?"
November 28th, 2017 at 7:56 PM ^
November 28th, 2017 at 8:04 PM ^
Jim Harbaugh must appreciate that.
WTF are you writing about? Leeway for what? Taking a team headed in the toilet to one that is competitive for B1G championships?
Competitive how?
We were one play away from being 11 - 1 in 2015........that weird fucking punt against Sparty as the time expired......a once in a lifetime play.
The same thing with last year. Fucked by the officials as we really did beat OSU.
Once again this year the O-Line was not able to protect the QB and we lost several games as a result of injuries to the most important player on the team.
So what's this leeway stuff all about? Do you think that Habaugh appeciates your generosity regarding his coaching capabilities?
I don't know........I just don't know.
November 28th, 2017 at 9:07 PM ^
Absent everywhere in this story.
November 28th, 2017 at 9:13 PM ^
LOL. WD got a sitting AD canned and the WaPo is excited about a few fans protesting a Jimmy Halsam cronie?
November 28th, 2017 at 9:40 PM ^
November 28th, 2017 at 9:43 PM ^
November 29th, 2017 at 4:27 AM ^
November 29th, 2017 at 12:53 AM ^
Stories like this one for Knoxville should provoke a Jim Hackett Appreciation Thread for heroically handling what was about an equally crazy situation here in AA.
This disaster could have very easily been us, and the perspective OP gave here is really eye-opening to how far we have actually come in such a short time without even noticing too much.
November 29th, 2017 at 4:16 AM ^
At Tennessee.
November 29th, 2017 at 7:43 AM ^