All for Tennessee
Fansided

Tennessee football: Is Phillip Fulmer the reason Vols haven’t fired Butch Jones?

By Caleb Calhoun

NASHVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 22: Head coach Phillip Fulmer of the Tennessee Volunteers gives a thumbs up after winning the game against the Vanderbilt Commodores at Vanderbilt Stadium on November 22, 2008 in Nashville, North Carolina. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 22: Head coach Phillip Fulmer of the Tennessee Volunteers gives a thumbs up after winning the game against the Vanderbilt Commodores at Vanderbilt Stadium on November 22, 2008 in Nashville, North Carolina. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Butch Jones is still Tennessee football’s head coach, baffling everybody. But is Phillip Fulmer the reason the Volunteers haven’t pulled the plug yet?

Related Story: 4 possible explanations for Vols not firing Butch Jones now

For a while now, Tennessee football fans have grown more and more frustrated with John Currie keeping Butch Jones on as head coach. Everybody has been wondering why he’s dragging his feet with a guy who is 3-5 in his fifth year with the Vols.

Maybe he’s working behind the scenes already for his new coach. Maybe, in what would be a huge slap in the face to Rocky Top, he still wants to keep Jones.

However, the answer may not be what people think.

According to Jimmy Hyams of WNML, Phillip Fulmer could have a role in this. Hyams spoke on The Opening Drive Monday morning and noted that Fulmer will be ‘heavily involved’ if there is a coaching search.

Hyams also added that Fulmer ‘strongly disagrees’ with firing a coach midseason. After all, that’s what happened to Fulmer himself when the Vols were 3-6 in 2008. Tennessee football lost its next game to the Wyoming Cowboys due to the distractions. And that loss knocked them out of a bowl game.

If all of that is true, then Fulmer could be the reason that Tennessee football is dragging its feet on firing Butch Jones. After all, despite allegedly playing a huge role in forcing him out in 2008, it seems as if Currie has valued Fulmer’s input ever since he took on his new role with the university.

That’s a great way to mend fences. So in that regard, we can’t really blame Currie. It’s important to keep Fulmer involved.

However, they’re wrong on this one. Fulmer’s Vols lost because he was still coaching after the news that he would not come back.

In this case, Currie and the Vols can salvage any positives this season by firing Jones now. Getting an interim in there would give them a chance to have a decent finish to the year.

Next: Vols' potential dream staff under Jon Gruden

Fulmer was a Hall of Fame coach. So his situation was totally different. In firing Butch Jones now, Tennessee football would just be getting rid of a guy who did some good for the program but never achieved legendary status.  As a result, the fallout from firing him would not be nearly the same.

Home/Vols Football