ESPN's Booger McFarland started the new "Golic and Wingo" morning show off with a bang on Monday with an epic rant against a "spineless" Tennessee football program that seemingly hired and fired Greg Schiano as its new coach in the span of a few hours.
John Currie, Tennessee's athletic director, almost immediately surrendered to fans and trolls screaming over the apparent hiring of Schiano, the Ohio State defensive coordinator who has had previous coaching stints with Rutgers and the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
BENDER: Tennessee's Schiano debacle magnifies discord in program
Schiano's detractors, including White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders, believe Schiano helped cover up Jerry Sandusky's child abuse at Penn State. If Schiano did cover for Sandusky, that's despicable.
But that allegation has never been proven, McFarland noted, and Schiano has never been charged. Respected coaches ranging from current boss Urban Meyer and Bill Belichick of the NFL's Patriots have vouched for him. McFarland on Monday said it was "disheartening" to see Tennessee Currie immediately run up the white flag to a pitchfork-bearing Twitter mob.
"You allowed the fans and the shock jocks and the other people to make you change your decision. What kind of spineless, no-backbone thing is that?" McFarland said. "Tennessee is a program that I thought had a lot of tradition. A program that I thought stood for something. You know what. It may very well be that — at some point. Right now, they look bad. John Currie looks terrible right now."
Given how quickly the Volunteers cut and ran on Schiano, McFarland thinks the program is "delusional" about landing another top head coach.
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"Tell me this: If John Currie calls you right now and says 'Hey, don’t worry about what happened yesterday, I want you to be the head coach at Tennessee,' are you going to take him seriously? How can he go about hiring the next coach? It's a shame, it’s a travesty," he said. "I don’t know Greg Schiano personally. But what I do know is Bill Belichick has vouched for him. OK? Urban Meyer has vouched for him.
"He’s coached the Tamp Bay Buccaneers, a professional organization. So many people have vouched for Greg Schiano. Now all of a sudden Tennessee is too holy that they don’t want Greg Schiano? Who the hell does Tennessee think they are right now? I think they’re delusional. I think they’re ultimately going to pay the price for it.”
As a football analyst, McFarland is in the running to join Mike Greenberg's planned ESPN morning show along with Michelle Beadle and Jalen Rose. On Monday morning, he brought it. He summed up the utter dysfunction of the Tennessee football program, as well as the essential unfairness of a social media flash mob.
As the week wears on, look for more media voices to agree with McFarland's position.