KNOXVILLE – University of Tennessee athletic director John Currie released a statement Monday defending his decision to consider Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano as a candidate for Tennessee’s open head football coach position.
Specifically, Currie addressed Schiano’s time at Penn State from 1990 to 1995, which coincided with the tenure of Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State defensive coordinator who is serving a minimum 30-year sentence after his 2012 conviction on 45 charges of sexually abusing 10 boys.
In 2016, Schiano was implicated as a possible witness in the Penn State child rape scandal. Testimony unsealed from former Nittany Lions assistant coach Mike McQueary in a deposition indicated McQueary had been told by another assistant that Schiano apparently once witnessed former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky “doing something to a boy in the shower.”
“Consequently, we, of course, carefully reviewed the 2012 investigation report by Louis Freeh,” Currie said in the statement. “Coach Schiano is not mentioned in the Freeh report and was not one of the more than 400 people interviewed in the investigation. We also confirmed that Coach Schiano was never deposed and never asked to testify in any criminal or civil matter. And, we conferred with our colleagues at The Ohio State University, who had conducted a similar inquiry after the 2016 release of testimony. I know that Coach Schiano will continue to have great success in his coaching career and wish him and his family well.”
Currie said in the statement that Tennessee “carefully interviewed and vetted” Schiano and that he received high recommendations.