Chip Kelly, Justin Fuente Put Pressure on Tennessee Vols Coach Butch Jones

By Caleb Calhoun | Sep 29, 2015

With Tennessee Volunteers Head Coach Butch Jones now on the hot seat, the pressure turns up with Chip Kelly and Justin Fuente as potential replacements.

Let’s be clear about something: Butch Jones is definitely on the hot seat. Tennessee’s 28-27 loss to the Florida Gators was inexcusable, and despite all the great recruiting and preparation, Jones’s in-game management has put him on this hot seat.

From not understanding when to go for two, utter mismanagement of timeouts, and complete confusion in running a hurry-up offense at the end of the game, on top of overseeing two blown 13-point leads in the fourth quarter in three weeks, Vol Nation is rightfully question just how good he is in crunch-time situations.

And what makes matters worse is who could be on the market at the end of the year.

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There is a very good chance that two sure-fire hires will be available after this year.

Let’s first start with the big name. Chip Kelly will likely be gone if he does not make the playoffs with the Philadelphia Eagles. If that happens, the former Oregon Ducks Head Coach will be a hot commodity.

Kelly showed he is brilliant with X’s and O’s, his system is unstoppable in college, and if he went to Tennessee, he would actually be able to recruit a lot better than he was able to at Oregon. The potential for success there is through the roof, and he would be a homerun hire matched only in the past 10 years by Nick Saban at Alabama, Urban Meyer at Ohio State, and Jim Harbaugh at Michigan.

It also helps that, thanks to Jones’s recruiting, he will already walk into a pretty stocked cupboard.

But if he does stay in Philadelphia, there is another college coach on the other side of the state who is sure to get a big-name job at the end of this year.

Justin Fuente is winning with the Memphis Tigers right now, one of the most impossible programs in the country to win at. And not only is he winning, but he is going undefeated.

Using methods taught to him by Gary Patterson, the offensive genius has shown he is brilliant at adapting to his personnel, he has put together a great recruiting strategy for that school, and he will in all likelihood carry the Tigers to an 11-1 record in the regular season this year.

What is already clear is that Fuente will be gone after the year is over and is definitely heading to another big-time program. The question is, which program? And does Tennessee want to ride it out with a coach who hasn’t proven himself in big games while passing up on a coach like Fuente?

Consider that one of the biggest differences between Fuente and Jones, and the one thing holding Jones back from potentially being the best coach in football, is that Fuente is brilliant in big games.

Despite a 1-8 start in games decided by one possession or less, all of which Fuente was coaching with far inferior talent, he has now won four straight games decided by one possession. Who among anybody who has seen the Tigers play the last two weeks is going to question his ability to coach in big games?

Unlike Jones, Fuente has a winning mentality to the point that his teams never feel out of it when they’re down. Meanwhile, the Vols roll over when they are down, and they are never able to hold on when they are up. That is a loser’s mentality, and it comes down from the head coach.

You would not get that with Fuente.

Fuente is a sure-fire hire for somebody at the end of the year, and there is a very good chance that Kelly could be one too.

With both of those guys on the market, Jones has to turn this season around. Right now it’s on him to prove why the Vols should let one or both of those guys go somewhere next year while they decide to keep him around. And at this point, the results are working against him.

He’s got eight games to figure it out.

Next: Vols Need to Find Their Swagger

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