Sunday Sacking: Tennessee’s future uncertain after unforgettable day

"What if I told you … Tennessee fans thought they were getting the former coach of the Tampa Bay Bucs ... only to sabotage the deal once learning it was Greg Schiano."

"The Revolt on Rocky Top: How #VolTwitter sacked Schiano.”

It’s not that simple. No. But one day, ESPN will produce a 30-for-30 documentary on one of the most frenetic days in coaching search history.

Naturally, Tennessee was at the forefront.

A day after concluding their worst season in program history, the Vols became the laughingstock of the college football world after one of the most embarrassing 12-hour marriage’s-oh-wait-I-want-a-divorce’s ever.

Everybody lost on Sunday: Tennessee. John Currie. Greg Schiano. Some in the media, and even a contingent of Vol faithful.

How Tennessee’s program moves forward from here is largely unknown, but what happened Sunday was unprecedented.

Let’s start with Tennessee’s fans, who took their share criticism from multiple national media outlets. Ultimately, I think they deserve a pass for Sunday’s sacking, but there’s no doubt their response to Schiano’s potential hiring exemplified the fine line between fanaticism and zealotry. The Vols literally changed course on account of the fans going full, “We’re the captain now.”

Sunday was a democratic hanging of Greg Schiano. But was it fair?

Look, I think Greg Schiano would’ve been an absolutely terrible fit at Tennessee. His autocratic style and inability to relate to people would’ve been an awful hire on the heels of Butch Jones.

Yet that wasn’t purportedly Tennessee fans’ issues with the hiring. “It has nothing to do with Jon Gruden or his record at Rutgers,” many implored. The entire ordeal became a backlash against Schiano’s time at Penn State and his alleged involvement in the Jerry Sandusky scandal. As Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel outlined, the details of the allegations against Schiano are entirely hearsay, but that didn’t matter on Sunday afternoon.

Perception became reality.

An accusation of “covered up child rape” was painted on Tennessee’s famed rock.

In the court of public opinion, Schiano totally lost whatever reputation he once had on Sunday. Local politicians, businesspeople, former players and partitioners decried Tennessee’s offer and implored Currie to back out of the deal. Fans protested on campus. Perhaps their cries were totally justified, but it all certainly felt convenient.

The same consensus and righteous moral high ground was certainly absent during the school’s Title IX case just two years ago.

They didn’t want Schiano because he wasn’t worthy of the job. And that's fair. He wasn’t Gruden, Dan Mullen or even Mike Norvell.

In the end, Tennessee fans made a mistake Sunday turning a convenient narrative into a mob movement, but the true blame lies with others — especially considering GBO Nation has faithfully supported a fizzling program for years. The fact fans had been Scooby Doo’d by misinformation throughout the coaching search simply exaserbated Sunday’s backlash.

Really, while the morality munity allegedly fueled Sunday’s fervor, the #GRUMORS sparked the fiery flames. On Sunday morning, a report surfaced that Tennessee had offered Jon Gruden $10 million to be its head coach. This fantasy report only fed the frenzy of folks who believed Gruden was seriously a possibility to become Tennessee’s next head coach.

He wasn’t. But that didn’t matter.

Since Jones was fired, enough folks had stoked the fires that Gruden was a legit possibility. When the #GRUMORS had briefly cooled, Chris Petersen became the latest faux fad. So when Schiano went from a hot board name to potential top candidate, a full on revolution occurred.

And that’s why John Currie and Tennessee’s program ultimately ended up as the biggest losers on Sunday. The customers won the battle, but at what cost?

How does Tennessee recover? Currie has cut off his nose to spite his face since the search's inauguration, and the result was an unmitigated PR disaster Sunday.

Tennessee fans are as passionate as any in the country. Hell, they rallied around Derek Dooley. They just wanted a worthy hire. But Currie’s credibility is now in question because he completely misplayed his hand throughout his pursuit the last two weeks.

He valued secrecy over transparency. Currie thought he was conducting a calculated, behind the scenes search, allowing the Gruden rumors to fester as some sort of smokescreen.

Clearly, his approach was misguided.

Currie touted "integrity" as a key to Tennessee's opening, yet tabbed Schiano — a man who no matter the PSU allegations still has more baggage than Willy Loman — for the job.

So Tennessee fans responded accordingly.

If Tennessee owes Schiano any settlement money for signing a memorandum of understanding, the situation will only get worse for the Vols first-year athletics director.

Sunday was a dark day for Tennessee.

After all that unfolded, it's unclear who will even be interested in the opening now. Tennessee’s search was already full of unknowns anyways and now it becomes a full on Dan Brown mystery novel.

At this point, will David Cutcliffe or Tee Martin become Tennessee's Robert Langdon and come save the day?

They might have to be.