If Tennessee Loses to Florida, Butch Jones is Squarely on the Hot Seat

Butch Jones will be coaching to stay off of the hot seat this weekend when travels to Gainesville to face Florida. The Volunteers have to win this game.

After two full seasons and three games into his third, Butch Jones’s honeymoon might be wearing thin.

Despite the Top Five recruiting classes and the great promotion and excitement he is able to generate around Tennessee football, he has got to start winning some big games. And this weekend provides another opportunity with the Florida Gators.

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Through their first 28 games, Jones’s record is 14-14. For context, that is only one game better than Derek Dooley’s record through his first 28 games. And it’s worth pointing out that Dooley walked into a much bigger mess than Jones. Yet he was fired later that year.

Now Jones is likely not going to get fired, even if his team stumbles to another terrible season. He has much more of a future to sell thanks to recruiting and the youth of the program at this point.

But a loss to Florida on Saturday puts him firmly on the hot seat simply due to the questions surrounding him in what we call judge games.

These are games that you are in where your team has a chance to win and there is something to play for. Dooley was atrocious in them.

Jones, meanwhile, has three wins in judge games through his first two years: South Carolina twice and Iowa in the TaxSlayer Bowl. But he has come up significantly short in lots of other judge games.

Let’s go back to his first year. His first judge game was a road match-up with a very beatable Florida Gators football team. A rash decision to start Nathan Peterman in that game cost him that game. He won a judge game with a signature victory in an upset against the South Carolina Gamecocks, a game that would not have been held against had he lost. But then, later in the season, with a bowl game on the line in a home match-up against the Vanderbilt Commodores, his team blew it at the end in a loss. He was 1-2 in judge games that year.

In 2014 his first judge game was his second match-up against Florida. And coaching not to lose when the Gators came to town, his team blew a 9-0 fourth quarter lead to lose 10-9. 1-3 in judge games for his career. Jones’s next judge game was an incredible comeback victory on the road against South Carolina to move him to 2-3, but he blew another one with a home loss to the Missouri Tigers.

Beating Vanderbilt to get to a bowl game last year did not count. They were awful.

But a win against Iowa in the TaxSlayer Bowl moved him to 3-4 in judge games.

Then came this year, and in his eighth judge game, Jones had a similar outcome to last year’s loss to Florida. In his third year with his program trying to get back, he fell to 3-5 after blowing a 17-0 lead to the Oklahoma Sooners in a game he should have won.

Well, now at 3-5 and with barely a better record than Dooley, he has to restore the program with a win against Florida. It doesn’t matter that this game is on the road. His Vols should have won the last two match-ups, especially the one last year.

And a loss could derail the season. If Tennessee falls to 6-6 on the year or even 7-5 with three straight losses to Florida, how could anybody sell keeping Jones around when he was barely better than Dooley through three years after walking into a much better situation than Dooley?

Jones has to know this. And with a 3-5 record in judge games right now, another loss would have to put him on the hot seat. You can’t sell the future after consistent mediocrity. It’s time to produce results. Ending the 10-game losing streak to Florida is a start.

Next: All for Tennessee Week 4 College Football Game Picks and Score Predictions

Butch Jones will be coaching to stay off of the hot seat this weekend when travels to Gainesville to face Florida. The Volunteers have to win this game.

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