Greg Schiano Was First Coach To Offer Tennessee Vols QB Jarrett Guarantano

The Tennessee Vols have turned to Jarrett Guarantano as their starting quarterback in 2017.

One of the popular names that’s been floated to replace Butch Jones as the head coach of the Tennessee Vols in 2018 is Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano.

Schiano worked wonders at Rutgers (his 2002 Rutgers team led Tennessee at halftime in Neyland), before giving the NFL a try. Things obviously didn’t work out for Schiano in Tampa Bay, but after two years on Urban Meyer’s staff in Columbus, he looks poised to take over a program.

And if that program ends up being Tennessee, Schiano will have a quarterback that he already knows very well.

From NJ.com:

"“I had a conversation a couple of weeks ago with Greg Schiano,” Jim Guarantano told NJ Advance Media after his son, Jarrett, announced his intentions to play for Tennessee. “We were talking. He was in Florida. He said, ‘You know what, I just want to let you know Jarrett had an offer when he was 6 years old, when he used to go to his camps with him.’"

One of the big reasons that Jarrett Guarantano signed with Tennessee is because of the relationship between his father and Butch Jones.

Guarantano’s father was a wide receiver at Rutgers while Jones was a GA at the school.

But that same relationship also applies to Guarantano’s father and Schiano.

Schiano was a GA at Rutgers during James Guarantano’s freshman season (1989). Jones basically took Schiano’s GA position when Schiano moved to Penn State in 1990.

The opportunity to coach Guarantano, who will have three years of eligibility remaining after 2017, might be enough to entice Schiano to come to Knoxville.

There’s no doubt that Schiano is preparing himself to make a return as a head coach. And he’s about to finish his second year at Ohio State (Urban Meyer typically asks coordinators to stay for at least two years in order to help them land their next head coaching gig).

The more I think about Tennessee’s next head coach, the more I think the Vols would be extremely wise to go after Greg Schiano. They won’t have to deal with a huge buyout, and he has a track record of success in college football.

I think he would do a great job in the SEC and his connection to Guarantano is very intriguing to me (there’s no way Guarantano would transfer if Schiano is hired).

Next: Justin Fuente Won't Be An Option At Tennessee

The Vols could do much, much worse than Schiano.