Tweets, leaks & fan revolts: UT's long, winding road to Jeremy Pruitt

Butch Jones was fired as Tennessee's head head football coach on Nov. 12 at roughly 4 p.m. ET. Alabama defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt was hired to replace him on Dec. 7, but it was the 25 days in between that defined the transition.

Tennessee’s coaching search included #Grumors, broken agreements, a fan uprising, a mid-search dismissal of an AD and long list of coaches saying “no."

Pro wrestlers got involved and there was even a chant or three on Monday Night Raw. Local restaurants inserted themselves into the reporting and, for reasons still unknown to, well, everyone, a former Vol quarterback told FAU head coach Lane Kiffin he sucked via direct message.

In the end, it all matters not. The long and winding search likely had no lasting effect on college football. It did, however, make us laugh. That alone makes it worth reliving.

It started with a dose of Jon Gruden fan fiction which, in itself, was incredible to behold. There were barbecue joints identifying random patrons as Gruden then apologizing (via the notes app) for the error. Little-known country music artists made photo collages comparing the back of the a man's head to known photos of Gruden’s dome from ESPN broadcasts. And while that act is totally insane, it did produce the wonderful phrase “ears appear similar.”

And we were just getting started.

When the Gruden delusions cleared, Tennessee fans were forced to deal with the reality that the search had landed on Ohio State assistant coach Greg Schiano. And for reasons that differ depending on whom you ask, that idea went over less than swimmingly.

There were angry tweets and painted rocks. UT athletic director John Currie’s Twitter mentions became a bottomless cocktail comprised of curse words and demands. Local politicians tweeted their displeasure.

We were off to the races. The greatest coaching search in human history was hitting its stride.

... And WWE Superstar Kane got involved

... multiple times.

Tennessee fans voiced their displeasure with Currie via chants at a Vol basketball game, which isn’t that unique. The fact that they hijacked moments of a nationally televised pro-wrestling show, on the other hand, proved they were willing to go the extra mile to accomplish, well, something.

Public pressure led to the agreement with Schiano being nixed, and the train was back on the tracks. The list of coaches that passed on the UT job in the following days is long and (sometimes) illustrious. Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy passed. Duke’s David Cutcliffe did as well. Purdue’s Jeff Brohm, and North Carolina State’s Dave Doeren did as well. An unemployed Kevin Sumlin was also not interested.

In the midst of the madness, former Tennessee quarterback and current local radio host Erik Ainge direct messaged Kiffin, who coached UT for one season, to tell him he sucked ... for seemingly no reason

And posted it on Twitter.

The result was one of the great self-owns of our time

Everybody, including Kiffin, got their joke off.

On Dec. 1, with the demolition derby of coaching search still raging on Currie, who had been on the job all of eight months, was "suspended".

But even that part of the story has a caveat. Along with Currie’s dismissal came reports of a power struggle between he and special advisor to the university president Phil Fulmer, whom the Vols fired as their football coach in 2008.

Hours after Currie's dismissal, Fulmer took over as AD.

Finally, on the evening of Dec. 6, things started to shake for the final time. Sadly, the end was neigh. But, hey, we'll always have the memories ... and the pictures of the back of some guy’s head.

And the tweets.