As the football world reacts to the strange saga of Greg Schiano's coaching fallout at the University of Tennessee, those who know him well have come out in defense of the former Rutgers coach.

First came New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, who defended Schiano--a coach he's had a relationship with and confided in when making major decisions on drafting players into the NFL.

The latest to defend Schiano after a social media wave forced Tennessee's hands to back out of an offer to make the current Ohio State defensive coordinator the school's new head coach in 2018: Schiano's current boss, Urban Meyer.

Urban Meyer on Greg Schiano: "I'm not angry, but I'll make this comment: He's an elite father, an elite football coach and an elite friend and I stand by my coach." — Ari Wasserman (@AriWasserman) November 27, 2017

Things escalated quickly in the Schiano-Tennessee mess. The man who turned around Rutgers a decade ago went from the next lead man at the SEC school to turned on by the Volunteers fan base to out of the gig within less than a day.

The reason--or at least part of it: Anger toward Schiano's knowledge (or perceived knowledge) of what happened with Jerry Sandusky at Penn State. Schiano was a graduate assistant and defensive coach at Penn State during a portion of the time Sandusky and head coach Joe Paterno ran the sidelines.

While there's a chance that the vitriol toward Schiano would have blown over, the intense reaction on social media created a quick firestorm that caused action from both the school and the coach it wanted to hire.

Schiano will be on the sidelines for Ohio State for Saturday evening's Big Ten Championship Game vs. Wisconsin.

Joe Giglio may be reached at jgiglio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoeGiglioSports. Find NJ.com on Facebook.