Tennessee football’s embarrassing 45-7 blowout loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa worked out perfectly for the Volunteers.
If you’re a Tennessee football fan, this couldn’t have been any better for you. The Vols needed certainty above anything else.
And by losing 45-7 to the Alabama Crimson Tide, they have certainty. There is 100 percent no reason to keep Butch Jones now. The need to fire him has been getting more clear each week. But on Saturday, it sealed his fate.
Jones could win the rest of his game by 100 points each, and he still would not do enough to keep his job.
At the beginning of the year, we did say he could probably keep his job at 8-4. However, when three of those four losses are to your biggest rivals, and when two of those four losses are solely due to your coaching failures, it’s clear.
Jones can do nothing to save his job, and John Currie now knows that he needs to fire him and get a head start on the next coaching search on Sunday.
Again, if the Vols played Alabama close, Jones would have a selling point. He could say the program is turning a corner, and then they could repeat the last two 9-4 seasons, which he could say is a good year since they were rebuilding by replacing a ton of new talent.
If they beat Alabama, which never would have happened, Jones would have a bigger case to keep his job.
But by losing 45-7 and failing to score a touchdown in three straight games, it’s a certainty now. Jones did a lot of good for Tennessee football. He helped to rebuild the program.
However, he has proven he can’t take this program to the next level. He’s an 8-4 coach, and that’s it. Currie should make the decision now before recruits leave He should also be thankful that there is no controversy behind the decision now. That’s why this blowout loss is a blessing.