SEC Power Rankings following week 5: Vols remain near bottom

The Tennessee Vols did not move one spot in our SEC Power Rankings. We had a case to move them down, and we also had a case to move them up, crazy enough. However, when you lose 41-0, even if it’s to an elite team, you did nothing to earn the right to move up at all.

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So we’re keeping Butch Jones’s team right here for now. And it’s bad news for Jones himself right now.

In his fifth year with the program, the guy firmly put himself on the hot seat three Saturdays ago when he coached away what should have been a sure win against the Florida Gators. An ugly win against the UMass Minutemen to follow up with didn’t make him look any better.

And this 41-0 loss to Georgia may have been the final nail in the coffin. Jones looks like a dead man walking, the program is falling into disarray, and Vols fans everywhere are just waiting for the firing to come.

This team looks completely lost on offense, and it doesn’t matter if Jarrett Guarantano or Quinten Dormady is throwing the ball. They also refuse to utilize their top playmakers on offense in the passing game, and they are extremely predictable.

The defense is actually not terrible, but they’re getting no help from the other side. Maybe if Jones and Larry Scott used Marquez Callaway a bit more and gave John Kelly more running room, things would be different.

But they’re not.

So now, the Vols have a bye week. And Jones is almost sure to get fired soon. The crazy part, though, is it’s not all terrible news.

Tennessee has a lot of football left to play, and the Alabama Crimson Tide are the only ranked team left on the schedule. Everybody else is beatable, so they could still finish 9-3.

With the way they have looked so far, though, don’t count on it.