4-8 (2-5 Big East)
Most of Butch Jones’ track record as head coach of Tennessee football was artificial success based on the layout of his competition at the time. However, this was the opposite. He had a bad season that nobody truly blamed him for, even though it looked awful on paper.
Jones had joined the Cincinnati Bearcats after three years with the Central Michigan Chippewas. He had directly replaced Brian Kelly at Central Michigan and won two MAC Championships in those three years, going 11-2 in 2009 and finishing in the top 25. In 2010, he was set to directly replace Kelly again, who had just left for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
Kelly had won back to back Big East titles at Cincy and went undefeated in the 2009 regular season, finishing 12-1 and in the top 10. Expectations were high. They faltered, going 4-8. Kelly had left the cupboard somewhat bare, Jones was instituting a different type of spread, and there was a rash of injuries.
That all is what created the disaster. Jones proved that the year was a fluke, though, winning back to back Big East Championships after that. Those were ironically flukes on their own and got him his job with Tennessee football, but until then, his fourth year was his only bad year.