Tennessee football: Butch Jones, Vols history show three games in 13 days can be disastrous
Tennessee football opens the season with three games in 13 days. But Butch Jones’s and the Volunteer’s history show that can be disastrous.
Related Story: Analyzing the difficulty of the 2017 Tennessee football schedule
Technically, Tennessee football has an easier schedule this year than it had back in 2016. However, while its brutal four-game stretch was the story of 2016, a brutal opening stretch is the story here.
The Vols open the season on a Monday night against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, a very dangerous team, in Atlanta, which is Georgia Tech’s backyard. That Saturday, they have their home opener against the Indiana State Sycamores.
And then, a week later, they will face the Florida Gators on the road.
That’s three games in 13 days, including two road games (GT is basically a road game) against teams that finished last year with nine wins.
Now, that shouldn’t be a huge deal. Grant Ramey of GoVols247 notes that Jones had a good bit of experience doing that with the Cincinnati Bearcats. He did that in each of his three seasons there.
However, he went 4-5 during those five games.
Tennessee football’s history is even worse. The last time the the Vols played three games in 13 days was 2005.
More from Vols Football
- How to Win a GUARANTEED $200 Bonus Betting Just $5 on the Vols vs. Florida!
- Tennessee Football at Florida: Five Keys to a Vols Victory
- Week 3 SEC Power Rankings: Did Tennessee Football’s Win Help At All?
- Week 3 AP Polls: Why Did Tennessee Football Drop in the Polls?
- Tennessee Football: Top Five Performers in 30-13 Win vs. Austin Peay
They had to face the LSU Tigers on the road Monday night because Hurricane Rita delayed the game. Tennessee had an epic comeback with Rick Clausen to win that game 30-27 in overtime.
At that point, it moved the Vols to 2-1 after a loss to the Florida Gators and put them back in the national picture.
The following Saturday, they scored an ugly win over the Ole Miss Rebels. But a week later, without any break, they had a hideous performance in a home loss to the Georgia Bulldogs.
In that game, the offense’s only touchdowns were a late one in garbage time and one set up by a pick-six.
After a preseason No. 3 ranking, that loss to fall to 3-2 is all the Vols needed to derail their season.
Sure, they lost four more games to finish 5-6. But that loss was what ended any chance of them winning the SEC Championship that year. So you can bet it affected the mentality of the team.
In fact, coming off a bye week, they almost beat the Alabama Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa two weeks later. Alabama was undefeated at the time. So the Vols were clearly fresher at that point.
Who knows what would have happened if they had the needed rest against Georgia and then got the win?
The story with Jones and Tennessee is that the third game is where you see the disastrous results. Jones lost the third game two of the three times he played three games in 13 days.
And the loss for Tennessee came in the third game as well.
This year, the Vols can’t relax until the third game. Georgia Tech will be brutal alone. But they will have to try to stay fresh after Indiana State and going into Gainesville.
Jones has hinted that he’s looking into Canada to see how they manage these type of things.
Next: Top 15 dark horse candidates for 2017 Vols
The easiest way to manage it is to use the starters as little as possible against Indiana State. If they can do that, it shouldn’t matter. But history does show that this type of schedule can turn things into a disaster.