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Tennessee football: Vols can’t justify keeping Butch Jones for another game

By Caleb Calhoun

GAINESVILLE, FL - SEPTEMBER 16: Head Coach Butch Jones of the Tennessee Volunteers is seen on the sidelines during the second half of their game against the Florida Gators at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on September 16, 2017 in Gainesville, Florida. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
GAINESVILLE, FL - SEPTEMBER 16: Head Coach Butch Jones of the Tennessee Volunteers is seen on the sidelines during the second half of their game against the Florida Gators at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on September 16, 2017 in Gainesville, Florida. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images) /
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Tennessee football head coach Butch Jones is done. After losing to the Kentucky Wildcats, there’s no way the Volunteers can justify keeping him.

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So let’s go ahead and break this down. Tennessee football is 3-5 overall and 0-5 in the SEC. They now have lost to the Florida Gators, Georgia Bulldogs, Alabama Crimson Tide and even the Kentucky Wildcats.

Coaches in Knoxville are supposed to be judged on how they do against the big three and then always beat Kentucky and the Vanderbilt Commodores. Right now, the Vols have lost their most recent outing against all five of those teams.

Yes, Jones has lost his most recent games to Vanderbilt and Kentucky. The last time a coach did that was Derek Dooley in 2012. He was fired literally the next morning. That was in Year Three after he inherited a complete mess in Knoxville.

Jones inherited a much better situation the next year and is pulling this stunt in Year Five. There’s no excuse. He may have done a lot of good for the program, but he’s undoing it all now.

We already knew after the Alabama game that Jones needed to be done.

But at this point, John Currie shouldn’t allow him to coach another week. Or at the very least, he should openly say he’ll fire Jones and ask Jones if he wants to finish out the year. But Jones is over, and things could only get worse if Currie drags his feet.

Remember our post back in August when we broke down how to measure Butch Jones’s hot seat?

Well, this is essentially worst-case scenario. We said then that Jones should not return if the Vols go 6-6 or worse in the regular season. They’re almost a certainty to finish 6-6 or worse because nobody should believe they will beat the Missouri Tigers on the road AND the LSU Tigers at home.

We also said if the Vols are 7-5 but lose to all their Rivals, Jones should be in trouble.

Well, 7-5 with losses to all their rivals is the best they can do. On top of that, the way they lost to their rivals makes things worse.

Jones got blown out by Georgia and Alabama. He then single-handedly coached away the Florida game. That Florida team was substantially worse than we thought they’d be when we made our hot seat analysis. So that makes it worse too.

And now he has a loss to Kentucky!

None of this is forgivable. There is no brick by brick process to sell anymore. The guy has Tennessee football trending downward. And he’s undoing everything he did to build up the program when he first took over.

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As a result, Currie needs to show his guts and fire Jones. He needs to fire him on Sunday and begin the coaching search quickly. If not, some of the top guys could go elsewhere. And they could even go to a rival. Jim McElwain might get fired, so Florida is one team that could get a candidate who should be at Tennessee. So Currie has GOT to make a move now.

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