Last Saturday, Butch Jones put one foot out the door by losing to Georgia 41-0. This was the worst loss I’ve witnessed in my lifetime. If Butch would have at least put up a touchdown, I may not be in the same mood. If this were at Georgia instead of Neyland, it might be different too. This was an absolute one hundred percent dumpster fire.
Last week, I was much more optimistic about this team, but each week my optimism has been dwindling. I think this was the nail in the coffin for me. It was so bad that I didn’t even bother to watch the second half. I think now there is only about a 10% chance we retain Butch Jones. A probable loss to Missouri, Vanderbilt, Southern Miss, or Kentucky changes that to less than 5%. However, I still think we let Butch finish out the majority of the season and then go find our coach. If we fire him before then, we will more than likely be stuck with Brady Hoke, Bob Shoop or Larry Scott as our head coach next year. With the recent comment about “Leadership Reps,” his public relations campaign just keeps getting worse.
Instead of doing a full recap of that game and becoming insanely depressed, I’ll briefly discuss the QB situation. After the 2nd half of the Georgia Tech game, I really thought Dormady was the guy. I thought he would get better. Instead, it’s clear he has regressed every single snap. He was terrible Saturday. Under threw almost everyone, couldn’t get anything going, and still didn’t want to run. Guarantano came in for garbage time and looked a little better. He went 6/7, but still seemed a little hesitant to run.
At this point, we should just ride with him. We know his ceiling is higher and any playing time will hopefully make him better. He’s young, and it’s going to take time for him to develop, but we should just give him trial by fire. Maybe he decides to run a little better and this offense opens up eventually. Either way, this offense can’t possibly play worse than they did Saturday.
Where do we go from here? Most Tennessee fans, including myself, are probably checked out for the season. Let’s look to the future and see reasons for optimism in the coaching situation and hope we end up picking a great replacement. Without going on too much about the candidates I wrote about last week, here is the coaching hot board 2.0.
The New Improbable Candidates
1) David Cutcliffe
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just recapture the magic of the 90s by hiring one of our all-time best assistants? I love coach Cut, he was an amazing offensive coordinator and most seem to think he has done a heck of a job at Duke. Overall though, his record is somewhat mediocre. He’s 56-62, and went 4-8 in 2016. That’s acceptable for a program that worships basketball and really has never been a football powerhouse. Tennessee cares about both, but we really care about football.
Cutcliffe is also 63 years old. He’s hit his ceiling as a head coach. This would not be a good hire for the job and I would be willing to bet he would do a worse job than Butch Jones. This would be anything but an upgrade and a desperate move in my opinion. I doubt he would be interested, his name has came up every time a change has been talked about, but he’s never interviewed for the job.
2) Bob Stoops
Bob Stoops is a great head coach. I would love to have him, but this hire wouldn’t make any sense. His program got destroyed by the Joe Mixon issue and it ran him off into “retirement.” Although, I think it’s a lot like the Urban Meyer “retirement” and expect he’ll be a head coach again soon. I just don’t think that moment is now. Tennessee just got over a major Title IX Sexual Assault lawsuit, and everyone will want to avoid controversial candidates such as this. He absolutely fumbled the Mixon situation. Mixon should have been kicked off the team for good, but Stoops failed to do so in the name of wins. If UT were to hire him, it would be a bad look. He has a damaged reputation, and time may fix that, but right now he isn’t a fit for this job.
3) Jeff Fisher
If you want 8-4, 6-6 every season. Then this is your guy. I might be in the minority here, but I absolutely hate Fisher as a head coach, pro or college. He’s the “okayest” coach of all time. This guy took the Titans to the Super Bowl almost 20 years ago and people act like he’s a a Hall of Fame coach. News flash, he stinks. He’s .512 over his career, and only went .414 with the Rams with no winning seasons. Players typically don’t like him, and there’s nothing really inspirational about the guy. He doesn’t have any innovative offensive or defensive ideas. He ruins all rookie quarterbacks not named Steve McNair. His play calling is a joke. Let’s also not forget, this cat has never really coached college. He’s not going to be able to recruit or build a decent college staff.
Honestly, this is the worst head coach candidate I’ve heard come up. I watched this guy single handily ruin the Titans franchise. I put more blame on him for the Vince Young fiasco than Vince Young. Young was a douche, but a douche who gave you the best chance to win. I hate Jeff Fisher so much that I could honestly keep going about all the reasons I hate Jeff Fisher. If we hire Jeff Fisher, I will go to every UT game to cheer against them because I hate Jeff Fisher that much and hope he gets fired. Mark my words.
The New Reasonable Candidates
1) Mike Leach
Mike Leach is one of my favorite coaches. He’s freaking hilarious and he has a great record as a head coach. He tutored Kentucky’s best quarterback ever, Tim Couch, and had an 84-43 record at Texas Tech. He was eventually fired from Texas Tech for fumbling a concussion situation with a player. UT can handle this kind of scandal, they cannot handle a coach with a sexual assault/questionable sexual behavior situation.
He beat USC two weeks ago and has Luke Falk looking like a potential Heisman candidate. He has had Washington State on a roll the past few years. He’s 32-9 since 2015 including this season. Washington State is by no means a traditional powerhouse in the Pac-12, but he’s fared very well. He has them at Number 8 in the top 25. That’s excellent and better than Butch Jones has ever done at UT.
One of my favorite things about him is his great one liners, something I feel that is missing from the SEC once Les Miles left. After a win versus USC this past weekend, he was quoted saying “It’s like Woodstock, except everyone has their clothes on.” When asked “USC is a second half team, how do you change that?” He simply replied, “Well so are we.” He has a lot of funny quotes you can find on 247Sports. A fanbase who is tired of hearing cliches like “Five Star Hearts”, “Fake News”, and “Champions of Life” could use a guy with a refreshing sense of humor.
Leach is only 56, and is much more mature in his coaching career than Butch Jones. I still think he has room to grow at a program such as Tennessee that has great facilities and resources. With the right staff and players, this guy could make us a competitor again. I think we could get a coach like this at UT, without necessarily breaking the bank. To me he seems like he would be very charismatic in interviews and would be a great culture fit with the fanbase and administration. Keep your eye on this guy.
2) Jeff Brohm
I like this coach, but I think with only one year at Purdue, he may be a reach. He was legendary at Western Kentucky leading them to a 30-10 record, and two conference titles over three years. His Western Kentucky teams were no rollover. He even had them in the Top 25 at one point, which is impressive for the Hilltoppers. So far, he seems to be doing a good job at Purdue compiling a 3-2 record this season. He had a close loss to Louisville and got a beat down by Michigan. Respectable considering this is Purdue we are talking about.
Interesting fact about Brohm, he is a former XFL quarterback for the Orlando Rage. He also had seven seasons in the NFL. I love former quarterbacks as head coaches. There are some great names in that category. Steve Spurrier, Jim Harbaugh, Jason Garrett, and Kliff Kingsbury are just a few I know off the top of my head. Another thing I like about him, he’s young. He’s only 46 years old. This could be Tennessee’s head coach for 15 years or more. This wouldn’t be my top candidate, but based on what I’ve seen for far at Purdue this season, he’s moving up my charts.
3) Justin Fuente
Fuente is a hell of a coach. Could Fuente jump ship after two seasons? I doubt it, but anything is possible. After turning the Memphis Tigers around, Fuente got the head coaching job for the Hokies in 2016. He’s done an excellent job. He inherited a 7-6 team. He turned them around in his first season compiling a 10-4 record and a conference division title last year and has a 5-1 record for far this year. He’s a great coach and there is nothing I see that says he isn’t a great coach.
Sure Virginia Tech isn’t beating the recruiting door down, but that’s a problem with Virginia Tech and not Fuente. He takes what he gets and works with it. Butch gets great talent and trashes it. Remember Butch Jones had Riley Ferguson, Nathan Peterman, and Josh Dobbs all at the same time and started Justin Worley. Guarantee you that Fuente doesn’t do that.
Is he going to be hard to pull from Virginia Tech? Absolutely. I think it’s possible he has some interest in the Tennessee job. Tennessee has some of the best facilities and money in the entire country. That’s going to have some appeal for anyone who isn’t at a program with similar resources. I would love to have this guy as our head coach and all indicators say he would have success. If we throw the bank at him, there’s a shot we could have him. I’m talking no less than $9 million/year with 5 years guaranteed and $20 million buy out. With that kind of money, he couldn’t stay at Virginia Tech. I just don’t know how much the boosters are willing to throw at this situation.
This is my number one candidate at this point. One of the qualifications for the job is “Must turn around dumpster fire in less than two seasons.” His resume’ at Memphis and Virginia Tech says, “Yes I can come in and turn a dumpster fire around in less than two seasons.” This is a match made in heaven.
Candidates in Order
Top Picks
1) Justin Fuente
2) Mike Leach
Decent Options
3) Tee Martin
4) Brent Venables
5) Jeff Brohm
Settling For What We Can Get
6) Mike Norvell
7) Scott Sattersfield
8) Mike MacIntyre
Smokey covers the Tennessee Volunteers for the SoBros Network. He loves a good backpacking trip, but hates taking a shit in the woods. Follow on Twitter: @SoBroSmokey
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