If Tennessee football is going to make the right move and fire Butch Jones, Volunteers fans may need to root for the UK Wildcats in Lexington Saturday.
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It goes against everything you would ever want to do as a hardcore fan of a team. Tennessee football fans would be the last to do this overall. But given the way John Currie is dragging his feet, Vols fans may have no choice.
Tennessee needs to get rid of Butch Jones as quickly as possible so it can move onto its next hire. The longer they keep Jones around, the more at risk they are of being stuck with him or missing out on their top replacement hire.
They should have done this the Sunday after their loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide. That should have been the deal breaker.
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Look, there should be nothing he can do to keep his job. But as we mentioned in this post of the things the Vols still have to play for, Jones could achieve quite a few things this year to sell keeping his job if Tennessee football goes on a winning streak.
And that should not happen at all. There is absolutely nothing Jones should be able to do to keep his job.
However, a report by Jimmy Hyams of Gridiron Now is suggesting that Curre is looking for a reason to keep Jones. As a result, if he wins out, he stays on in 2018.
Even worse, Hyams suggested Jones could still stay if he plays Kentucky close. These reports make it clear that Currie is looking for every reason possible not to fire Jones.
As a result, the Vols maybe can’t afford for him to beat Kentucky in Lexington on Saturday. Just imagine if he wins, gains newfound momentum, and his team has a strong finish to the season.
Going 8-4 again in a rebuilding year after losing your top quarterback is not going to look as bad on the surface. It becomes much harder to fire Jones. That would be a disastrous scenario.
That would ignore how he went 8-4. Everybody would forget the record included a bad loss to a Florida Gators team that was solely due to horrendous coaching along with a hideous offensive performance in a close loss to the South Carolina Gamecocks at home coming off a bye week.
These are all embarrassing things to see under a fifth-year head coach. And while the Vols were not going to beat Alabama or Georgia, they didn’t have to get blown out. Simply put, it’s all bad for the program right now.
So perhaps Currie needs a little bit of nudging. Again, Tennessee football fans are the last fan base to do this. But they should make the case that they will never settle for mediocrity. That means not traveling for this game, and it could mean rooting for the other team.
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The longer the Vols hold onto Butch Jones, the more all the good he did is undone. His time is over in Knoxville. He can’t take Tennessee football to the next level. And with the jury out, the Vols need him gone as soon as possible. Losing to Kentucky might be the only way for that to happen.