Rumors are swirling around Knoxville right now concerning the situation with UT football. I am pretty sure if you Google that first sentence you will get hits from the last 10 years. Let’s be honest from the start; UT’s program has been an on-again off-again dumpster fire since the mid 2000’s. It really started in 2005 when UT was ranked 3rd in the country in pre-season polls and ended up going 5-6 which included a loss to the SEC’s perennial cupcake, Vanderbilt University. The 2016 season has not been nearly as disappointing as the 2005 season, but it has been a shit-show in other ways.
UT has lost two games this season to two or the three worst teams in the SEC East. They have single handily propelled the SEC East to having 5 bowl eligible teams. That dubious distinction was earned by losses to Vandy and South Carolina, both of whom are 3-5 in SEC play with overall records of 6-6. In both games, UT was at least a two touchdown favorite.When you look at that and you pair it with wins over UGA and Florida it makes absolutely no sense. For a bit of history, the last time UT beat Florida and lost to Vandy was 1921. To be fair, Vandy was much better than UT back then. From 1892 to 1927, UT only had two wins and had three ties in 17 meetings.
Next, we had an outside chance that UT was actually looking at backing their way into a Sugar Bowl appearance if they could beat Vandy. Beat Vandy and go to a New Year’s Six Bowl Game… Beat South Carolina and go to an SEC Championship. When it counted, UT didn’t show up this year. I don’t care how many injuries you have or what other excuses you want to make. When the season was on the line, UT choked. They choked in spectacular fashion. YOU CANNOT EVER LOSE TO VANDY.
The third reason this season has been a total mess is Butch Jones might actually dump UT and go somewhere else. Which begs the question, who the hell wants this guy? The rumor mill is saying that Purdue might be a possibility. I have also heard people on talk radio saying that insiders are putting Oregon as a place CBJ would like to go – if he is offered the job. I think that is a stretch. Oregon has had a lot of recent success and I am not sure CBJ has the bona fides to land that job. Purdue seems more likely.
Actually it seems like it would be a great job for Jones seeing as how his expectations would be non-existent, which seems to line up with his ability to coach against talented and/or well coached programs…. Or anyone really. Examples can be seen over his tenure at Tennessee. Last year, they couldn’t finish and this year they couldn’t come out strong in the first half. These are not things that great coaches struggle with consistently over multiple seasons.
Even if we look at an area he is supposed to excel at, recruiting, he seems to be failing when you look at the sheer amount of transfers that have left from his first freshman class. He had two five-star players leave in the middle of the season this year. Jalen Hurd was all in on UT when he came here and was tweeting at other recruits trying to entice players to come to UT. How do you go from that to leaving in the middle of the season and possibly having to sit out for a year? Pair that with the three de-commits that we had this week and it is really starting to look like Jones is going to leave us in a Dooley-esque dumpster fire that will take at least four years to crawl back out of, or 10 years if we make another dumbass move and hire a legendary coach’s moron son…. again… for the third time.
They just announced a new Chancellor, Beverly J. Davenport, and I am sure she will want a say in the new Athletic Director who is also retiring this year. Unfortunately, that will not happen until she officially starts her job on March, 1st 2017. Then, she will need to appoint a new AD, and then they will be able to start the coaching search. By this time, all available coaches will be three months into recruiting for their new schools. What does this mean for UT football?
Basically it means that if our wonderfully mediocre coach decides to leave us we will be totally screwed even though we have a TON of available coaching talent. This is extremely unfortunate for the casual UT fan. 90% of the UT faithful give exactly zero fucks about the UT chancellor. I know the position is important, but it isn’t important to me. If you disagree, that is just fine. Name me 3 chancellors off the top of your head. Now, name me 3 football coaches. Hell, name me three retired SEC coaches from the 1980s.
Joe Gribble is the SoBros Network’s resident East Tennessean and expert on the Vols and unpopular opinions. You can disagree with him, but just know – he really doesn’t give a flying fuck. Follow on Twitter: @BrosephGribble
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