Randy Smith
You really have to give Tennessee head football coach Butch Jones a lot of credit. When the season ended with a thud in that loss to Vanderbilt, Coach Jones didn't just wallow in his own personal misery, he hit the recruiting trail running full steam ahead. It just so happens that the Vols landed not only the state of Tennessee's top recruit, but offensive lineman Trey Smith from Jackson committed to the Big Orange this week. That's really great news for the Tennessee program since three of the Vols' earlier commits chose to go elsewhere. In other words, with a total and complete collapse in the second half of the season, things had gotten about as bad they could be.
The commitment of Trey Smith has breathed life into a program that came from basically nothing four years ago when Butch Jones was hired. Once again, I told you so....when the school elected to fire head coach Phillip Fulmer, I warned that the program would sink to lows that true Vol fans haven't seen....ever. After three years of Derek Dooley running the program, there was basically no talent at all in Knoxville. There was no speed, no size just a lot of two and three star players who probably weren't as good as their stars would indicate. Jones fixed that problem immediately with great recruiting classes. Now there are enough athletes to compete weekly in the SEC.
Coach Jones made a comment earlier this week, that actually has some merit. He said, "Our first 22 players were as good as any team in the country. We proved that by starting five and oh." Even though the Volunteers didn't play as well as they should in winning those five games, they did win them. Before all those injuries on both sides of the football,, especially on defense, Tennessee was a legitimate top ten team. That early success only teased the Big Orange faithful of what might have been.
Instead of heading to the playoffs or the Sugar Bowl, the Vols are facing Nebraska in the Music City Bowl, in a match up of teams that both buckled down the stretch. If Tennessee wins against the Cornhuskers, they would only equal last year's 9-4 record. Still, 9-4 in back to back years isn't that bad for a program that was as low as it could possibly be just four years previous. No it's not what Vols' fans wanted but it sure beats another 5-7 season.
So, where does Coach Jones go from here? Back on the recruiting trail where he needs to land a few more Trey Smiths. He also needs to step back and evaluate his coaching staff, especially his coordinators. I know that his defensive guru Bob Shoop came with great credentials and a great reputation, but the collapse of the Tennessee defensive unit in the final four games of the season was absolutely inexcusable despite all the injuries. Something is dreadfully wrong and Butch needs to fix it....now before the bowl game with the Huskers. As far as the offense goes, it appears that his buddy Mike Debord may be about to retire, which means a change is coming on that side of the ball as well.
A head coach is only as good as his staff. I truly believe that, and Butch Jones' staff at Tennessee is not getting the job done. You may ask yourself, how will the Vols be able to compete next year as they will lose Josh Dobbs, Alvin Kamara and many of their defensive players. Recruiting will help, but Butch needs to coach as well or better than he ever has in his life. He needs to make some staff changes and bring in some real difference makers. Or......Tennessee may be headed back to the state of irrelevance they were in when he took over.
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Randy Smith has been covering sports on radio, television and print for the past 45 years. After leaving WRCB-TV in 2009, he has written two books, and has continued to free-lance as a play-by-play announcer.
His career has included a 17-year stretch as host of the Kickoff Call In Show on the University of Tennessee’s prestigious Vol Network. He has been a member of the Vol Network staff for 30 years.
He has done play-by-play on ESPN, ESPN II, CSS, and Fox SportSouth, totaling more than 500 games, and served as a well-known sports anchor on Chattanooga Television for more than a quarter-century.
In 2003, he became the first television broadcaster to be inducted into the Greater Chattanooga Area Sports Hall of Fame. Randy and his wife Shelia reside in Hixson. They have two married children, (Christi and Chris Perry; Davey and Alison Smith.) They have five grandchildren, Coleman, Boone, Mattingly, DellaMae, and CoraLee.