Tennessee football should fire Butch Jones Sunday after the Volunteers lose to the Alabama Crimson Tide. They should hire their new coach right after that.
So let’s go ahead and put it out there. Tennessee football’s going to get blown out by Alabama. The only question is whether or not the Tide cover the spread.
At that point, when Sunday arrives, the Vols will be 3-4 and 0-4 in the SEC. Butch Jones’s only selling point will be that this is a young team that replaced its key weapons from last year and has a chance to finish strong, ignoring the fact that his horrendous coaching decisions will have cost the Vols in two of those losses.
As a result, the only decision will be for John Currie to fire him. If he does do that, the only reason to name an interim coach is if he’s looking for a guy coaching elsewhere right now.
But if Chip Kelly, Jon Gruden or Bob Stoops are real candidates, why not hire them immediately? In fact, if those are his top guys and he gets one of them, why not make the hire that following Monday?
It may be crazy and completely ridiculous, but that way you get your guy before another team does. You can lock him in for a long-term deal.
Also, you get a huge jump on recruiting at that point. Let the guy get started, bring in the staff he can, and then fill the rest of it out when the season ends.
Hey, it’s crazy, but if the guy you want to hire is not under any contract, there’s no reason to have an interim that you know you won’t hire full-time to finish out the season.
Even if the coach’s system will throw the players for a loop and cost the season, who cares? It gives more time to help acclimate them to it. And a good coach could adapt the system to what the players already know.
Tennessee football has enough talent for a coach to come in and immediately run things. Have him finish out the year with a focus on recruiting. Then, he gets a major head start that other first-year coaches don’t have.
And by 2018, the Vols could be rolling as if it’s the coach’s second year, which is usually when teams take off anyway. This seems like a crazy thought. But it could potentially be worth it.