After firing Butch Jones in the middle of the season, Tennessee has reportedly landed on Greg Schiano as its next head football coach, according to USA Today's Dan Wolken. ESPN is reporting that a deal is presently being finalized.
This will be the first head coaching gig in college football for Schiano since his 11-year run at Rutgers, where he went 68-67 overall and led the Scarlet Knights to six bowl games in seven years (5-1 record) before getting hired away by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
After two years and an 11-21 record, Schiano was fired by Tampa Bay at the end of the 2013 season and spent two years as a volunteer coach at Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa before Urban Meyer brought him on board at Ohio State prior to the 2016 season as defensive coordinator and assistant head coach.
Schiano was named the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year in 2006 as Rutgers raced out to a 9-0 record and finished 11-2 with a top-15 ranking in the final polls. The Scarlet Knights proceeded to win at least eight games in all but one season after that breakthrough year until his exit in January 2012. Respected throughout the coaching industry, Schiano at Tennessee is presented with a great chance to recapture that college success of a decade ago.
