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Tennessee football coach Butch Jones blame deflecting by benching Dormady

By Caleb Calhoun

GAINESVILLE, FL - SEPTEMBER 16: Head Coach Butch Jones of the Tennessee Volunteers is seen on the sidelines during the second half of their game against the Florida Gators at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on September 16, 2017 in Gainesville, Florida. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
GAINESVILLE, FL - SEPTEMBER 16: Head Coach Butch Jones of the Tennessee Volunteers is seen on the sidelines during the second half of their game against the Florida Gators at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on September 16, 2017 in Gainesville, Florida. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images) /
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Tennessee football head coach Butch Jones’s decision to bench Quinten Dormady for Jarrett Guarantano was blame deflecting in the Volunteers’ win over UMass.

Tennessee football now has a brewing quarterback controversy. And it’s all due to the fact that Butch Jones completely mismanaged their play on Saturday.

As they struggled against the Massachusetts Minutemen, the Vols were finally starting to get a rhythm with Dormady heading into the second half.

In a string of four offensive possessions, two to end the first half and two to begin the second half, Dormady led Tennessee to two touchdowns and a field goal. He had clearly found his rhythm, and Tennessee had a chance to pull away.

UMass scored on the next drive, though, and that’s when Jones made the inexplicable decision to put in Jarrett Guarantano.

If Jones wanted to give Guarantano some reps in this game, that would be fine. However, why would he do that with the game close and Dormady finding a rhythm?

The only logical explanation is that he’s blame deflecting.

Jones knew he was taking some heat for the atrocious play of the Vols in this game to follow up such a horrible coaching job in their loss against the Florida Gators.

There would be no way for him to explain Saturday’s atrocious play.

So he benched Dormady at the worst time. Of course, it wasn’t a shrewd move, as everybody could see it. And his inexplicable decision to make the switch at that moment only drew more heat on him.

Guarantano was clearly not ready, playing multiple drives and going 2-of-5 for minus-three yards while only running for four yards and scoring no touchdowns.

Dormady was 17-of-27 for 187 yard, one touchdown and no interceptions.

But the stats aren’t even the relevant part to this story. The relevant part is the fact that Jones switched quarterbacks at the absolute worst time. And it came as he was under fire. So it appears he was just trying to pass blame from him onto his quarterback situation.

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