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Tennessee football: Nick Saban, Alabama should purposely struggle with Vols

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 15: Head coach Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide shakes hands with head coach Butch Jones of the Tennessee Volunteers after their 49-10 win at Neyland Stadium on October 15, 2016 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 15: Head coach Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide shakes hands with head coach Butch Jones of the Tennessee Volunteers after their 49-10 win at Neyland Stadium on October 15, 2016 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
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Tennessee football will likely get blown out by the Alabama Crimson Tide. But to keep Butch Jones, Nick Saban should purposely struggle with the Volunteers.

Related Story: 5 Vols to watch for vs. Alabama

If there is any semblance of truth to what Clay Travis, Paul Finebaum and the message boards have been saying, Tennessee football is prepared to break the bank for its next coaching hire. That could spell bad news for their SEC competition, including Nick Saban.

However, Saban and Alabama have one way out of this. The first order of business for the Vols is to fire Butch Jones. And they need to make sure they’re 100 percent ready for that firing.

Everybody expects it to come after Alabama blows out the Vols on Saturday. So what’s the Tide’s best play here? Struggle with the Vols on purpose.

If Butch Jones somehow barely loses to Alabama, he has a selling point that the program is on the right track. John Currie will likely let him finish out the season.

And in the process, he has a great chance to finish 8-4 again and win a bowl game to get to 9-4, repeating the last two seasons. Since he had to replace so much key talent from last year, he has another selling point to stay on another year after that.

This could all be very dangerous for the Vols.

However, if you’re Saban, you want Butch Jones in Knoxville as long as possible. Clay Travis once again noted that Tennessee is a sleeping giant. The booming high school football within a three-hour radius of the Vols makes Rocky Top a better job than it even was when Phillip Fulmer was there in the 1990s.

And with the right coach, it could explode. If Saban and Alabama blow out the Vols on Saturday, Tennessee football will get that right coach sooner rather than later.

By struggling just enough, the Vols stick with Jones for the remainder of the season at the very least. And that could ruin their chances of getting one of the big-name guys who could awaken this giant.

Honestly, if Saban had guts, he might want to almost consider losing to Tennessee on purpose. But if you’re Alabama, you don’t want to run out of mulligans this year.

Auburn and Mississippi State are both dangerous teams they have to face on the road. LSU is never a cakewalk.

And the SEC Championship game is looking more and more brutal against the Georgia Bulldogs. If they go undefeated this year, Alabama could feasibly lose the title game to the Dawgs, and both teams could make the College Football Playoff.

Next: 4 historical games show Vols could upset Alabama

As a result, he can’t afford to waste his mulligan on the Vols. But he can afford to purposely keep the game close before stealing it in the end. And that would be the worst-case scenario for Tennessee football. So the Tide should do that.

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