Jerre Haskew
All across the national and the state of Tennessee college football landscape, the headlines and voices are blaring, "Butch Jones once again snatches defeat from the jaws of victory." The Vols and their coach squandered a two-touchdown lead to a reeling Florida Gator team in the last seven minutes of the 4th quarter at the Swamp in Gainesville. Folks, to paraphrase the late Peter Finch in the movie "Network," the old Music Man is "mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this anymore."
Butch Jones again blows a game that he and his embattled team had essentially won and is being skewered by national and statewide media on this Sunday morning. The Vols give up four 4th & longs in the last seven minutes, any one of which would have sewn up the win. He doesn't go for two in an automatic situation after scoring a TD that puts the Big Orange up 26-14. He goes into an offensive shell in the last two-thirds of the 4th quarter, plays not to lose and his defense once again looks disorganized and simply worn out. His game management at the end was painfully and obviously horrible.
Jones is a great recruiter, program organizer, manager and salesman, but he's obviously woeful as an in-game coach - especially in the 4th quarter with a lead. His players love him and follow him like he's a combo of Jesus and the Pied Piper. The team's academics are at an all-time high GPA. But the fact remains that Tennessee should never have lost this game or the earlier one to Oklahoma, squandering two touchdown leads deep into the 4th quarter in both. Maybe Jones is just a "brick by brick" shy of a load. His post game comments to the voice of the Vols, Bob Kesling, were just awful and made him look even more ridiculous. He took no personal responsibility and spewed the same old, same old repeated ad nauseum "coach speak" drivel. His kids played their butts off and deserved better coaching and support from this staff.
These are just the most obvious and recent painful losses under Jones where he snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Think Florida last season, Georgia the past two seasons and Vandy in 2013. And remember that he's also the coach who lost to the hapless Vols coach Derek Dooley 45-23 when Jones was head coach at Cincinnati. That was one of TWO Division I teams that finished the regular season with a winning record that Dooley managed to defeat during his three years at Tennessee, losing to the other 23. Jones now has the exact same win-loss record as Dooley at this point in their respective tenures. Folks, this is a pattern and, unless his boss, UT AD Dave Hart, privately calls Jones on the carpet and has a "come to Jesus" meeting with him, it's not likely to change. His "yes man" coaching staff obviously won't challenge him.
Speaking of scheme, how does a team with TWO 5* and TWO 4* incredibly talented wide receivers -Josh Malone, Preston Williams, Marquez North and Juan Jennings - manage to complete ONE pass to the lot of them? Yet they complete several to guys who barely made the travel squad! How does a defense facing 4th and 14 at the opponent's 37-yard line with 1:27 left on the clock, decide to rush only three men against a beaten up Gator freshman QB and allow him the time to look off three receivers and complete a short pass that became a game winning 63-yard touchdown? How does a team rush for 254 yards, win almost every statistical category and lose? How does a team and its defensive staff manage to allow that rookie Florida QB on four 4th and longs and one 4th and short to complete 5-5 passes for 123 yards and a TD? Believe me, it ain't easy, Big Orange fanatics. Lord, I could go on and on and on.
Here's the bottom line, UT fans. Arkansas comes to Knoxville next Saturday having lost three consecutive games - to the Toledo freakin' Mud Hens and defenseless Texas Tech at home and Texas A&M in Dallas, blowing a late 4th quarter touchdown lead (sound familiar?). They're in shell shock and in the same boat as the Vols. People, this is a MUST win for Butch Jones! Instead of being 4-0 and on a confident roll going into the trifecta of the reeling Razorbacks and SEC East favorite Georgia at home and SEC West pick Alabama on the road, Jones and his Vols have their collective backs against the wall and are looking at a season of somewhere between 5-7 at worst and 8-4 at best, with three of those wins coming against "cupcake" teams. Lose to the reeling Razorbacks and the bricks will start flying through windows of stores on the "Strip" and the UTAD. Long suffering Vol fans and the Vols' "Team 119" deserve much better and, believe me, they won't follow Jones' Pied Piper routine much longer if this pitiful coaching and game management continues. On the optimistic side, thank God Charlie Strong turned the Vols' head coaching job down to go to Texas! Stay tuned.