#14 Hot Seat Head Coach – Butch Jones, Tennessee
We have enough contacts around the Southeastern United States now, including a few that live around Knoxville, Tennessee, to know that Tennessee Vols head coach Butch Jones is none too thrilled that his ass is now on the Hot Seat at Coaches Hot Seat and other media outlets that cover college football, but come now Butch…..we are talking about…
TENNESSEE FOOTBALL
…here Son and we will be Damned before anyone at Coaches Hot Seat is going to tolerate mediocrity at Tennessee or any other football school that should be an perennial power in college football.
When we say that we are not going to tolerate “mediocrity” at Tennessee what we mean is this…Butch Jones’ win/loss records in FOUR years at UT:
2013: 5 – 7
2014: 7 – 6
2015: 9 – 4
2016: 9 – 4
Overall: 30 – 21
SEC: 14 – 18
Yes…the above numbers..especially the last two years of 9 – 4 records are slightly above “mediocre” but let’s go inside those win/loss numbers to look at a few other key metrics:
Record Against Power 5 Conference Opponents: 18 – 21
Record Against Non-Power 5 Conference Opponents: 12 – 0
Record Against SEC East Opponents: 14 – 10
Record Against SEC West Opponents: 0 – 8
Now you understand why we have Butch Jones on the Hot Seat and if you still don’t understand let’s start with these Simple Facts
A. In a time when the SEC East has been the WEAKEST it has been since the SEC Conference split into two divisions Tennessee under Butch Jones had a great opportunity to establish a presence in the SEC East over the last few years, but instead what Butch Jones has been doing is…
B. Has Losing Record Against Power 5 Conference Opponents
C. Is Cleaning Up….40% of his Wins…are against Non-Power 5 Opponents
D. Barely has a Winning Record Against SEC East Teams
E. Has Not Beaten Even ONE SEC West Team in Four Years
F. Zero SEC Eastern Division Titles and ZERO Trips to SEC Championship Game
Oh…and here’s the REAL kicker….in 2015 + 2016 Tennessee easily had the most talented team in the SEC East and both times Butch Jones let Florida win the SEC East when anyone with a working brain knows the Gators had no Damn business playing in the SEC Championship Game the last two years!
Now here’s the REAL problem facing Butch Jones today…while Jones and the Vols have let two trips to the SEC Championship Game slip away the last two years when UT clearly had the most talented team in the SEC East, the rest of the Eastern Division has now caught up and entering the 2017 season the Vols no longer have the best roster in the East Division which are ranked below based upon talent:
1. Georgia
2. Florida
3. Tennessee
4. South Carolina
5. Kentucky
6. Missouri
7. Vanderbilt
Yep…Butch Jones has gotten himself into a Helluva situation where he has two straight 9 win seasons on the board with Tennessee fans in both years expecting more like….
A Trip to the SEC Championship Game
…which UT fans should have been expecting since they had the best roster in the SEC East the last two seasons AND now Jones is facing a quickly improving SEC Eastern Division that will FORCE Butch Jones and his coaching staff to take it up a notch in 2017 or face a reckoning come late November of this year that could see another head coaching change in Knoxville…but more on that in a moment.
Let’s take a look at Tennessee’s 2017 football schedule:
Georgia Tech
Indiana State
At Florida
UMass
Georgia
South Carolina
At Alabama
At Kentucky
Southern Miss
At Missouri
LSU
Vanderbilt
Oh Butch Jones does have a Helluva situation on his hands with that schedule which has at least TEN teams on the Vols schedule that have a 50-50 or better chance of beating Tennessee AND in a season when UT fans will be looking for the Vols to win the SEC East for the first time since…..wait for it…..since…
2007!
What kind of records do we think Tennessee will finish with in 2017? Well if we had to guess and it’s only a guess which is our opinion of course we would say….
Overall: 7 – 5
SEC: 5 – 3
Is it even remotely possible that Butch Jones would be brought back to coach the Tennessee Vols in 2018 if he finishes 2017 with the above records?
Not A Chance In Hell!
Why do we say that you ask?
Because if Butch Jones goes 7 – 5 in 2017 that would open the door for the Tennessee Vols to hire the ONLY coach now on the market that could Totally Transform Tennessee Football overnight and turn the SEC Conference on its head by getting off a plane in Knoxville to take the Vols job.
Who exactly is that coach you ask?
Well…below is that coach’s records in the FOUR years he was a head coach in college football:
2009: 10 – 3 – Conference Champion – Rose Bowl
2010: 12 – 1 – Conference Champion – BCS National Title Game
2011: 12 – 2 – Conference Champion – Rose Bowl
2012: 12 – 1 – Tied for First in Division – Fiesta Bowl
Overall: 46 – 7
Conference: 33 – 3
3 Conference Championships in 4 Seasons
Who is the above coach you ask?
Why it’s former Oregon head football coach Chip Kelly who after a few years in the NFL may have figured out that it is NFL officials that determine the speed at which NFL games will be played and that if Chip Kelly is going to be a successful head coach again it will have to be on the college level.
Oh…here’s another little tidbit delivered by a friend of ours over lunch in San Francisco earlier this year:
“I think if Chip Kelly goes back into the college game he wants a shot at coaching in the SEC.”
Hmmmmm…..Chip Kelly’s attacking spread offense in the SEC and in the incredibly loud Neyland Stadium which only gets louder and Louder and LOUDER as the Vols pour on the points would be a Helluva frightening thought….to other SEC Conference Head Coaches…and it should be a Helluva frightening thought to Butch Jones as well because in our opinion….
If Chip Kelly was offered the Tennessee head coaching job he would accept it AND Chip Kelly would IMMEDIATELY start winning on a BIG scale in the SEC Conference and who does Tennessee open the 2018 college football season against you ask?
West Virginia in Charlotte
Oh that would be a Helluva Game to kick-off the Chip Kelly-era at Tennessee facing off against Crazy Dana Holgorsen and the Mountaineers in Charlotte!
Memo to Butch Jones: Not that we have a clue Butch what the administration at the University of Tennessee is thinking, but we do know what a BIG alum + booster of Tennessee Football is thinking when he told us in March of this year the following:
“I think Jones is going to need 9 wins plus in ’17 to keep his job boys.”
There you have your Win Target Butch Jones = 9 Wins
Good Luck To You Son!
Oh for those Tennessee Football fans that aren’t like the Stanford folks at Coaches Hot Seat that got to see Chip Kelly’s teams at Oregon up close and personal for FOUR years here’s a little reminder of what Tennessee might just have in its future…maybe some of your remember this 35 point whipping that the Ducks put on the Vols in Neyland Stadium in 2010?
That sound you just heard were head coaches around the SEC Conference saying:
“Let sure the Hell hope they don’t hire Chip Kelly at Tennessee!”
Oh..here’s the 2011 Oregon at Stanford game we are still trying to forget!