As Saturday’s probable era-ending 15-9 loss to South Carolina unfolded, it became clear to me that history is repeating itself before our half-covered eyes.

Butch Jones’ coaching decisions on the field will ultimately be his undoing in Knoxville, but choices he made off it certainly won’t help. Jones decided this offseason to promote tight ends coach Larry Scott — who’d never called an offensive play on any level — to be his offensive coordinator in a pivotal season.

It was a puzzling act that at least made you think back to Phillip Fulmer’s ill-fated choice to bring in Dave Clawson and his Incredible Line-Flipping Fiasco as offensive coordinator in the year that ultimately led to his ousting. For Derek Dooley’s debacle, it was bringing in Sal Sunseri to sit at the helm of the defense that led to his undoing.

Scott is the catapult that’s going to launch Butch out of Knoxville. But, let’s not kid ourselves, the in-game decisions are constantly, consistently atrocious. That’s ultimately the last push.

Whatever energy vampire lurked in Tennessee’s locker room at halftime needs to be booted immediately, because after the Vols went in at the break, they came out a different team. If you want to see adjustments, this wasn’t the place to be. A defense that dominated the first half got tired and got pushed around in the third and fourth quarters, as South Carolina’s inside-zone cutbacks with its third-string running back was something Bob Shoop had no answer for.

Yes, you read that right. Tennessee’s $1 million defensive coordinator was beaten like a 10-cent pony after the half.

And that was nowhere near the worst thing that happened to Tennessee. After Jarrett Guarantano — making his first career start — was finally allowed to throw downfield on the final series, completing three passes to get the Vols in scoring position with no timeouts and the clock running down, Jones elected not to have his young quarterback spike the ball after the final first down.

The clock ran, bleeding eight or nine seconds. If you don’t think that’s a big deal, it meant at least one and probably two plays. UT got one of them back on some generous clock-keeping by the Neyland Stadium crew that left a second on the clock after an incompletion in the end zone cost the Vols just three seconds, but that doesn’t change a horrific coaching decision not to spike it. That was an unfathomable choice, and it’s just the latest in a long line of gaffes by Jones.

His own stubbornness, his inability to expand and enhance his offensive scheme and his almost nonchalant style — which contradicts his fiery demeanor — continues to be obstacles UT can’t overcome. Too many times, the Vols find themselves needing to win in spite of their coaching, and they simply aren’t talented or deep enough to do that.

Jones isn’t the guy. This isn’t the staff. This team really should be better. Despite all the off-the-field shenanigans and rumors and all that, UT came out fired up and played well in the first half. The players acted like they wanted to win, like they wanted to save their coach and save face in the process. There were no discernible boos during the game by a decent Neyland Stadium crowd, and the game unfolded the way any close SEC game should.

Then, the Vols coaches blew it like they’re accustomed to doing. For anybody who wants to blame Guarantano for this, that would be crazy. It’s the Jones offense, and it’s Scott’s play calling. Plain and simple.

A blunder before the season started escalated this situation. It has manifested itself in an ugly situation that has witnessed Tennessee failing to score a touchdown now in 10 quarters. That’s two-and-a-half games. AT HOME! On Saturday, the Vols had -14 rushing yards in the second half. Prior to Guarantano completing those passes to put UT in a position to score a game-winner that would never come, the entire offense had negative 7 yards in the second half.

Just when you thought this team may show signs of life, it died again.

The only casualty that is going to sting may be the decimation of what was an excellent recruiting class. But when these youngsters are going to come into a situation where they aren’t being developed and aren’t competing for four quarters or aren’t being placed in the best position to win, it’s a moot point.

If you think we’ve already fired this staff here, that’s not the intent at all. We’ve all heard all week that this was a “must-win” game for the Jones era. He didn’t win. That says all that needs to be said. Now, at 3-3 and 0-3 in the SEC, you start realizing what’s going to happen and analyzing WHY it happened.

It’s happening because Butch’s offense is Butch’s offense. It’s a scheme he said early in his tenure was “infallible” but has turned out to be anything but. The offense was the offense when Justin Worley couldn’t run it. The offense was the offense when Joshua Dobbs could, but yet Jones and Mike DeBord couldn’t expand it to be dynamic and explosive enough to incorporate enough big plays to beat the best teams.

And the offense is the offense now. It was clunky again under Quinten Dormady, wasting his arm strength and failing to put him in a position to utilize his best assets. It was clunky again on Saturday with Guarantano — somebody who is built to run the offense — because the offensive line struggled and because Scott is predicable, can’t get into a rhythm and may be one of the worst play callers we’ve seen in a while.

At this point, it falls on Butch. Everything does. Much like Fulmer and Dooley before him, a bad coaching hire just exacerbated things.

It’s been said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Tennessee football is insane because this is the third time it’s happened, and the only way to stop this endless cycle is to try it yet again.

Even if it’s driving us all crazy in the process.

Tennessee got a much-needed bye week after three consecutive trying weeks for head coach Butch Jones and the program. It probably didn’t feel like one.

Right now, everybody has a source on Jones’ future — or lack of one, depending who you ask — on the Tennessee sideline. There are still fights, as evidenced by defensive end Darrell Taylor getting suspended indefinitely in part for brawling with a teammate. There are players like senior Josh Smith trying to step up and do leadership-y things such as saying the team has Jones’ back and the Vols are going to bowls, what more do you want? GAH!

Still, it’s OK to demand more from your football program, Vols fans. Just do it in a respectful way. Remember there are lives affected, families at stake and perception in the eyes of recruits and people who may come and coach after Jones goes, whenever that may be.

Whatever is going to happen is going to happen without your 140-character quip, I promise.

So, go have fun. After all, the past decade has given us few moments of contentment, but we’re never so happy as when it’s GRUMORS! time.

With that in mind — “that” being it doesn’t matter what you think — let’s all band together and hate Will Muschamp this weekend, can we? There’s perhaps no bigger jerk in the SEC. This guy hates Tennessee, makes wisecracks and smart remarks every time he can about our program and lets his players talk trash leading up to the game.

He did it at Florida, and now he’s doing it at South Carolina.

Also, there was this little tidbit from a recruiting story by SEC Country’s Mike Griffith last year regarding the recruitment of offensive tackle K’Rojhn Calbert:

“I was in the locker room, because Coach Muschamp said we’re not going to feed you any bull crap, what you see is what is is,” Calbert said. “I wasn’t scared in the sense for my life, but I was scared because there were a lot of things going on in that locker room, nothing illegal, just words being used, ‘We’re going to kill Tennessee.’

“Really, it was like a riot; it was, who was hungry enough to come out and take somebody’s head off, like literally, like they really wanted to kill Tennessee, like slaughter everybody,” Calbert said. “It was a savage mentality.”

Um, yeah, Muschamp is a buffoon. Heck, he may be a baboon, or at least he has a caveman mentality. The worst thing is the Vols have never beaten him, as the coach of the Florida Gators or at South Carolina. He’s a terrible coach, yet he has Tennessee’s number.

If you’re going to pull for UT to lose, I’m not sure you’re a fan, anyway. But if you are going to do that, do it another week. Nobody should want Muschamp to come into Neyland Stadium and walk out with (another) win.

This South Carolina team isn’t that good. The Gamecocks are way too cocky, and Tennessee needs to band together and win this game. If the Vols don’t, we may keep our attention off the field for the foreseeable future.

As far as the locks go, last week was much better. Hey, there’s nowhere to go but up after a 1-7 week, amirite? Anyway, we went 5-3 with wins coming from Memphis, Miami, West Virginia, Georgia and Washington State covers. The losses were pretty awful, as Maryland didn’t cover 31 against Ohio State, Kentucky didn’t beat Mizzou by more than 10.5 and SMU couldn’t keep it within a touchdown against Houston. Still, we’re sniffing .500 again, now sitting at 20-21-1. We’ll get back over the hump this week. Guaranteed.

But before we get to this week’s locks, let’s look at the keys to beating the Gamecocks.

KEYS

Put Guarantano in a position to be successful

This is The Guarantee’s first career start, and nothing is guaranteed. It doesn’t matter how loudly you’ve screamed for him to replace Quinten Dormady this year, there’s a reason why he didn’t have the job until now. It’s likely that he didn’t even “win” the job as much as UT just knows it has to try something different because what it has been doing obviously isn’t working.

As we’ve hashed and rehashed all week, the redshirt freshman from New Jersey has completed 50 percent of his passes so far in very limited action this year. We’ve also noted that, no matter how much we’d like for him to be, he isn’t Joshua Dobbs.

We can’t look at this weekend like we’re watching perhaps Jones’ most heralded, important recruit. We can’t look at it like the entire coaching regime and the season may be on his shoulders. Those things may be true, but none of them are Guarantano’s fault. He’s a youngster, and he is going to be as wet behind the ears as they come.

Offensive coordinator Larry Scott needs to get back to basics, give JG some high-percentage passes, let him run the read-option and give him some opportunities to get his confidence up. There definitely needs to be some shots downfield and some chances to showcase his speed and arm strength. But this is about starting a new era, and you can’t shatter the kid’s ego up front. Help him out.

Block out the noise

Tennessee has proved over the past couple of weeks that it has a bunch of immature kids. It also has proved that it is lacking in the leadership area, no matter how many reps they may be getting in practice.

All of the talk about new coaches, suspended players, decommitting recruits, players not on the sideline or those who are transferring out of the program needs to end once UT trots onto Shields-Watkins Field for pregame warm-ups. If this ever has a chance of being a “team” under Jones again, these guys have to play together, for each other, block out the noise and play the way they’re capable of playing.

Who knows if this program is too far gone for Jones to recapture? Few of us do. After all, can we really see John Currie canning Jones if he goes 10-3? What about 9-4? I’m not saying yes or no. But it would make things murky. This season can be saved starting with Saturday. At the very least, the Vols could save some face. If they have any pride, they’ll try to do that.

Find some heroes

Tyler Byrd has talked some smack back to South Carolina this week, further proving how immature he is on Twitter (seriously, somebody take social media away from that kid!) There were rumors and actual reports this week that Dormady was contemplating his future after being demoted. Seriously, where are the leaders?

If these guys aren’t going to do it, how about somebody who will? John Kelly was very vocal throughout the preseason and early season. It’s time for him to take over. But he needs help. Can Kahlil McKenzie or Shy Tuttle prove they’re key defenders? What about speedy linebackers Daniel Bituli or Quart’e Sapp? If this is going to be Guarantano’s team, it would be nice to see him show some fire and for the players to rally around him.

This team is starving for somebody to take over and be an Alpha. This week is the ideal time to start.

Play a full game

Just like last season, the slow starts plague Tennessee. Two years ago, UT couldn’t close out games [as evidenced by late losses to Oklahoma and Florida] but the past two years has seen the Vols blow games early.

The Vols didn’t even really start playing the Georgia Tech and Florida games until the second half. Did they ever even show up against Georgia?

If that happens this weekend, UT will be 3-3. Jake Bentley is the best quarterback the Vols have played this year, and he is going to torch them if they don’t get off to a quick start, stay aggressive and assert themselves. There won’t be any coming back against South Carolina.

Get to Bentley

Speaking of Bentley, he can pick you apart, even without Deebo Samuel out there catching darts. Tennessee needs to apply some pressure on him from all angles, and that means defensive coordinator Bob Shoop needs an aggressive game plan.

How much tougher is that going to be without Taylor out there? The redshirt sophomore could have been booted from the team for his actions these past few weeks, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that he’s a talented player the Vols need. He would have been an X-factor in this game. Instead, he let his teammates down.

Now, UT needs to find ways to get to Bentley and throw him off his rhythm.

LOCKS

So, yeah, 5-3! Not bad. This week, we’ve got eight more games we love. Let’s go 8-0!

1. West Virginia -3.5 over Texas Tech: The Mountaineers are the best two-loss team in the country, and I’m still not sold on the Red Raiders being ranked. This is going to be a high-scoring attack, but Dana Holgorsen’s team is better. Will Grier will throw at will over TTU, and this is an easy cover in Morgantown.
2. North Carolina State -11.5 at Pittsburgh: I must be missing something on this line. Pitt has been a struggle all year, and the Wolfpack are playing quality football right now. This won’t be a high-scoring game, but NCSU will grind out a convincing win.
3. TCU -5.5 over Kansas State: This is my lock of the week. Gary Patterson’s team is in a different class than Bill Snyder’s. Yes, this is the kind of game that the Wildcats seem to occasionally win, but the Horned Frogs have big aspirations. They won’t stumble here.
4. UCLA and Arizona under 77.5: This is an insane number. Hey, I like Josh Rosen as much as the next guy, and he deserves some Heisman consideration, and I expect him to do his part to hit that over. But the Wildcats won’t. This game won’t get close to that number.
5. UCLA -2 over Arizona: Again, I love Rosen. Bruins cover easily.
6. Navy at Memphis under 75.5: Speaking of crazy numbers, I don’t see the Midshipmen going into the Bluff City and throwing up a lot of points. The Tigers defense is bad, but Navy won’t shred up yardage and points.
7. Texas A&M +2.5 over Florida: Kellen Mond is beginning to look like a future playmaker, and the Gators can’t find any of those on offense. Kevin Sumlin’s team is going into the Swamp and winning outright.
8. Michigan State -4.5 over Minnesota: What we saw last weekend was no fluke. Mark Dantonio’s team is much improved from a season ago, and the win over Michigan may be just what they needed to get back on track. Minnesota’s loss to Purdue showed they aren’t quite there in P.J. Fleck’s first year. Spartans roll.

 

If you’re like me, you’ve probably sleep-walked through this week in a daze. It hasn’t been that long ago that our team was 5-0 to start the 2016 season heading into a pivotal road game against fellow unbeaten Texas A&M nearly midway through last year.

Now, Butch Jones and Kevin Sumlin share the hottest seats in the SEC, perhaps along with Missouri second-year coach Barry Odom. It’s crazy, but the Vols have absolutely lost everything all at once.

Now, you just wonder how long it’s going to take for it to end.

But before all that happens, there’s some football still to be played, beginning with next weekend’s home game against South Carolina. Everybody is going to be curious to see what the Neyland Stadium crowd is like, how receptive they are to Jones and the team and just how the Vols respond to all this adversity, especially against a coach in Will Muschamp who has UT’s number.

Perhaps the biggest question of them all though is who’s going to start at quarterback? If you’re a true UT fan, you still want the Vols to win. And so you want to see what this offense is going to look like with Jarrett Guarantano under center. In the flashes we’ve seen him this year, he hasn’t been good. But you wonder if he prepares differently and how the team responds to him once he has two weeks of work.

Following Quinten Dormady’s early-season struggles, you have to figure the Vols are going to go with Guarantano. After all, he may not be “better” right now, but he’s “different.” And different is what UT needs right now. The Vols have to try something — anything — else to try to find answers.

But I’m cautioning you all: Guarantano isn’t Joshua Dobbs.

Repeat that again with me: Jarrett. Guarantano. Is. Not. Joshua. Dobbs.

I said it all through last season and all through the offseason: All of those UT fans who weren’t sold on Dobbs would realize just how good of a player he was once he’s gone. He wasn’t always the most accurate passer, but he sometimes willed the Vols to wins and kept them in games. This year, quarterback play has been a liability. Do you not think Jones and Co. already would have started Guarantano if he was like Dobbs?

The bottom line is the redshirt freshman is strong-armed, quick-footed and talented. But he is too panicky in the pocket, looks to run too quickly and can’t freelance in the open field the way Dobbs could. He struggles with touch on his passes, and he hasn’t gotten the offense in any sort of rhythm when he’s been on the field.

Will that be any different with him if he starts and if he’s prepared to be a starter? I don’t know, but don’t believe he’s going to come in here and automatically be the savior. There are more things wrong than just the quarterback position. So, it’s hard believing a kid with no experience is going to do away with the doldrums.

Well, let’s move on to the gory details.

Last week was the worst Locks & Keys week of my life. I went 1-7. If you actually bet, I wouldn’t listen to me at all. But after two frustrating weeks (after a hot start) dropped me to 15-18-1, there’s only one thing to do, and that’s pick some winners. Right now, I’m the prognosticating equivalent of the Vols.

I’m awful. Seriously, there’s no excuse for 1-7. You have to try hard to suck that bad. I’m a failure.

Speaking of our team, they’re pretty pitiful. Needless to say, they did nothing last week that we hoped. That’s why they lost 41-0. So, let’s take a look at last week’s keys. They were all failures.

• Make Fromm look like a freshman: There were times throughout much of the first quarter and a half where he absolutely did look like a first-year starter. Then, Fromm settled down, made some throws and show the poise he’s been known for. He was only 7-of-15 for 84 yards, but he didn’t have to do much. He had two rushing scores.
• Slow the big three: Nick Chubb had 109 rushing yards, and the Dawgs controlled the game on the ground. But the numbers weren’t really all that big. They didn’t have to be.
• Remember the rhythm: This was another play-calling failure for new offensive coordinator Larry Scott. It was pathetic.
• Turn ’em over: When UGA turned the ball over, the Vols promptly butt-fumbled it right back to them.
• Band together and coach this team: If anything, it looked like UT quit and it also looks like the Vols have quit playing for Butch. I hope I’m wrong. It doesn’t feel that way right now.

KEYS

You really can’t have any keys in a bye week, but after all the rumors, the embarrassing Touchdown Club trip to Memphis, the recruiting defections, etc., I know a lot of people believe the only key right now is to move in a different direction.

I’ll only say once that I agree; Butch Jones has done the exact opposite of galvanizing the fan base, and though he’s done a lot for this program [whether you feel like giving him credit or not] maybe the next guy needs to do the heavy lifting.

I’m wrestling with those emotions right now, because he’s coming off back-to-back 9-4 seasons. But this thing is so completely broken right now. There is a chance the Vols can get it going back in the right direction, but they’ve shown no signs of it yet.

It kind of makes you wonder if they will.

We’ve read so many times this week that it’s now not a matter of “if” but “when.” The Vols need to take care of business, starting with South Carolina next week, or we’re about to start over. Yet again.

LOCKS

In case you didn’t pay attention, I suck. I’ve got to turn it around, and I will. This week, it’s at least back to .500, and we’re going to try to go over it. Let’s do this.

1. Memphis (-13.5) over UConn: Last week, the fighting Scott Frosts brought Memphis back down to earth. But the Tigers are still very good and can still score a ton of points. The Huskies can’t. This one seems too easy, and it’s gonna be a good start to the weekend with a Friday night win.
2. Maryland (+31) over Ohio State: I don’t care if the Terrapins’ eighth-string quarterback plays, DJ Durkin is finding a way to dial up some points. This Maryland team isn’t bad, and even though they won’t beat the Buckeyes, they’ll keep it within 31. Easily.
3. Washington State (-2.5) over Oregon: I don’t understand this at all. I know it’s at Eugene, but this Ducks team is two weeks removed from losing to Arizona State and just lost starting quarterback Justin Herbert. Mike Leach still getting no love.
4. Georgia (-17) over Vanderbilt: The Commdores are a solid team that will go bowling, but they can’t score against this Bulldogs defense. UGA will be coming off a commitment from 5-star quarterback Justin Fields, and they are undefeated and smelling big things. This won’t be a letdown game.
5. West Virginia (+13.5) over TCU: It’s asking too much for Dana Holgorsen’s team to go to Fort Worth and pull off the upset of a good Horned Frogs team that is hot right now. But Will Grier and Co. will keep it under two touchdowns.
6. Miami (-3.5) over Florida State: The Seminoles are not very good. Miami is, and Mark Richt’s team is going to come out hyped and pour it on FSU. It’ll be thorough.
7. Kentucky (-10.5) over Mizzou: The Wildcats have a tendency to play up or down to their competition, so that makes this a dangerous game, but Barry Odom isn’t going to last long in Columbia, and this UK team is going to score at will on the Tigers.
8. SMU (+6.5) over Houston: Ed Oliver may or may not play, but it won’t matter. Not only will the Mustangs cover, Chad Morris’ 4-1 team will win outright. They are not a bad team, and it won’t be long before Morris is a hot commodity for another program.

Interception. Punt. Punt. Punt. Punt. Fumble. Punt. Interception. Punt. Fumble. Punt.

That’s how Tennessee’s first 11 drives looked on Saturday in a disgraceful 41-0 home loss to Georgia at Neyland Stadium.

Yet, there Quinten Dormady still was, in there as Tennessee’s starting quarterback late in game the Vols were losing to Georgia in a contest that had turned into a stand-up comedy routine by Twitter and with CBS announcers Brad Nessler and Gary Danielson — God bless them — trying to find anything nice to say about the Vols.

A day that started with ESPN’s Gameday crew shredding Butch Jones for his criticism of the media and questionable story regarding Tennessee defensive tackle Shy Tuttle’s face injury ended with pretty much everybody around the nation shredding Jones after the latest Tennessee debacle.

Jarrett Guarantano came in then, with a minute to go in the third quarter, the game far out of reach, the boos already echoing through Neyland Stadium, fans in orange turning on each other and fighting in the stands and everybody pretty much defeatedly agreeing that this is about as bad as it gets.

It isn’t that Guarantano was definitely the answer. He certainly hasn’t proven he is. It’s that the Vols have no answers right now. For anything.

“It was as bad an offensive performance as I’ve ever been a part of in college football,” Jones told the media afterward, “and it’s inexcusable.”

Maybe for the first time in his entire tenure at UT, I didn’t hear any postgame excuses. But these are trying times.

There is talent all over this offense, but first-year [on ANY level] offensive coordinator Larry Scott can’t do anything against a quality defense. The scheme doesn’t match the players. The quarterback doesn’t match the offense. Though there were flashes by UT’s defense at times on Saturday, bad field position, turnovers and simply getting gassed late led to ugly results on the scoreboard.

There is no such thing as style points in a loss like this, but UGA made sure the Vols didn’t have any, regardless.

Even Trevor Daniel suffered through the worst punting game of his life, hitting a Bulldogs lineman with a line drive early in the fourth quarter. This was after, earlier in the game, the Vols gathered a UGA interception in Dawgs territory only to see center Jashon Robertson hike the ball into his own butt, watching the Vols turn the ball right back over to UGA.

Yep. Not only did the Vols embarrass themselves on the scoreboard, they gave the college football world two memes to personify the struggles of this team so far this season. Still, it’s no laughing matter for UT fans.

Fights broke out on the field out of frustration in the fourth quarter, drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Darrell Taylor, who was ejected. It was a ridiculous call, but it only fueled the fire that is smoldering around Jones.

When everybody’s to blame, you have to blame Jones.

This is his program, for better or worse at this point. It’s Year 5. When it’s the fifth year and you’re getting demoralized by a divisional rival on your home field in front of a sold-out crowd checkerboarding Neyland Stadium two weeks after you coached your way into a loss against a Florida team you out-classed from a talent perspective, it does not bode well for your regime.

This is a team that turns the football over all the time, including in the most crucial moments of the game. It’s a team that doesn’t have answers, at quarterback or really at any other position, when it’s time to make a play. The goal-line, second-overtime stop of Georgia Tech by Taylor is long in the rear-view after what all we’ve seen in the past few weeks. This is a team that gets penalties, fights with other teams, possibly [depending on whether you believe the rumors] fights with each other, and, most importantly, loses football games in discouraging, disappointing ways. It’s a team whose coaching staff gets out-schemed every week.

What we saw on Saturday was Georgia — a team the Vols have beaten the past two years — not only go past Tennessee in the SEC East but boat-race the Vols along the way. The Vols were already in Florida’s tail lights, and now, they’re behind Georgia as the Bulldogs look like a team that could start a stellar, long-term run with Kirby Smart’s recruiting prowess on full display.

This is the way Alabama beats Tennessee. But when somebody else does it, it’s time to start asking hard questions, even with most of us already have the difficult answer. This is not the way Georgia beats Tennessee. Ever. When it happens, it’s the kind of setback that should make everybody look hard at the program.

This week, you read on this site two articles by two different writers [including yours truly] calling this game a crossroads for Jones. Saturday’s game approached that crossroads and had a head-on collision with reality: This is not getting it done.

Whatever this is, it isn’t the future of the program. If you want to blame that on Butch, that’s totally fair at this point. Make a change.

If it’s on the players, let others play.

It is assuredly not the fans, especially those of us who’ve hung on for a long time. Thinking — knowing — there needs to be a change at this point doesn’t make you a Negavol. It makes you somebody who misses your team playing good, disciplined, hard-nosed football, for drawing up actual plays that gains actual yards, for not beating itself, for not becoming a laughingstock of everybody around, media and opposing fans alike.

On Saturday, the Vols were made a laughingstock by the Bulldogs, who danced and pranced and celebrated on Shields-Watkins Field.

Look: It is not my job to fire Butch Jones, and I won’t do it in this column. That isn’t my place, and it isn’t our intent with what we write within the walls of this blog. But the walls of Tennessee’s program crumbled Saturday, and it’s shameful. Whatever needs to happen needs to happen quickly.

Butch Jones can stand up there in front of everybody and talk about these games being unacceptable and about things needing to turn around and about this team having pride and resiliency and everything else. But they’re just words, and, as we know by Jones’ first five years in Knoxville, he loves those words.

It’s time for action. By him, his players, or by Tennessee’s administration.

 

Welcome to this week’s Brad-is-sick-as-a-dog-when-Tennessee-plays-the-Dawgs version of Locks & Keys! In other words, this one’s gonna be short and sweet, and let’s hope that since I coughed all over the words, you won’t catch whatever it is I have.

We all know two weeks ago was devastatingly disappointing for the Vols when they went to Gainesville and lost on the last play due to some baffling defense/decisions. We also know that last weekend’s near-miss debacle against UMass wasn’t indicative of what this UT team is.

So, what are we going to see this week?

As Will and I have both written, Tennessee’s game against Georgia could be a defining, decision point for coach Butch Jones’ tenure. It also could be a pivotal spot for Quinten Dormady to run with the quarterback job or for Jarrett Guarantano to get an extended look throughout the remainder of the season.

Don’t you just hate it when there’s so much on the line? That’s the picture Tennessee has painted itself in. There’s still so much to salvage this season. Beat the Bulldogs, and the Vols are right back in the thick of the divisional race. Unfortunately, that doesn’t look like it’s going to be easy at all.

Let’s take a quick look at last week’s locks. It wasn’t pretty. We went 4-4 with Utah, West Virginia, Duke and San Diego State all hooking us up. But Oklahoma State, Tulsa, Oregon and Florida decided not to play nice. Three of those lost outright. So, we’re 14-11-1 this year. That needs to get better. And it will.

Here are the keys, so let’s see if UT did them.

• Get Guarantano extended reps: I’m going to say this one’s even. He got what he needed. Butch put him in for three series, and all were three-and-out. However, he also put him in in perhaps the worst imaginable situation. So, I’m going with a FAIL.
• Can I get a Shamburger please? Nope. After we heard so much about this stud freshman, I can’t remember a single defensive rep all year. FAIL.
• Ty Time: Tennessee’s struggles didn’t exactly dictate the Vols leaning on a backup tailback, so it’s understandable that he wasn’t a huge part of the game. It did look like the Vols wanted to work him in. FAIL.
• Don’t get anybody hurt: Well, turns out this should have extended to the pregame, too. Shy Tuttle got hurt. Jashon Robertson wasn’t himself, and tight ends Ethan Wolf and Jakob Johnson got hurt in the game. FAIL.
• Let the Byrd fly: Tyler Byrd had just two catches for 21 yards, but one of them was a touchdown. EVEN.

KEYS

Make Fromm Look Like a Freshman

So far, the savvy first-year former 5-star Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm has looked poised and awesome. It doesn’t matter whether he played in South Bend or at home in Athens against Mississippi State, he looked like he needs to be the guy no matter if Jacob Eason is ready or not.

He still hasn’t played in an environment like Neyland Stadium can be. Expect the old girl to be loud (at least at the beginning) and that could rattle Fromm, especially if the Vols can disguise some blitzes and generate a pass rush.

Slow the Big Three

Nick Chubb is beginning to look like Nick Chubb again, and that’s good news. But it isn’t great news for the Vols as the senior returns to the scene of his gruesome knee injury that set him back more than a year. Sony Michel and freshman D’Andre Swift are proving to be more than able backups.

UT’s defense hasn’t been bad against traditional offenses this year, but they’ve not faced a set of running backs like Georgia’s. The Vols won’t be able to totally stop them, but they must get some key stops on third downs, inside the 20-yard line and get the Dawgs off the field. They cannot let UGA control the game on the ground. You’ve got to put the game in the hands of the quarterback and hope.

Remember the Rhythm

What happened to Larry Scott’s play-calling? He was very good in the season’s first two games, and beginning with the inexplicable decisions inside the 10-yard line against Florida and culminating with the complete second-half failure against UMass, he looks like he’s in over his head.

Scott needs to remember he has John Kelly, and he needs to ride him. He also needs to put Quinten Dormady in position to complete high-percentage passes and take calculated shots downfield. The Vols cannot afford to be anything like they’ve been on offense the past two weekends, or they’ll get blown off their own field.

Turn ‘Em Over

Tennessee needs some crucial stolen points in this game, whether they’re created off turnovers or special teams. That’s the way the Vols beat Georgia the last time the Dawgs came to Neyland Stadium, and that needs to be the formula this time. Tennessee needs to be hyped up and aggressive. That needs to yield extra possessions.

Band Together and Coach this Team

I’m sick of hearing about Butch Jones. He’s not proved that he can be a high-caliber SEC coach yet, and he has been a gameday liability. All that can change if he begins to coach aggressively, puts the garbage behind him and mans up in this pivotal game. That’s what needs to happen if he wants to be UT’s coach in the future.

This Vols team has been criticized (rightfully so) and dragged through the coals. Everybody in the country is predicting Jones to be canned. This team should use that as motivation if it has any gumption about it. If it doesn’t, Jones could lose the locker room, and, ultimately, his job.

LOCKS

This is a tough week to pick games, but I see eight that I at least kind of like. I really like all of them except for Iowa.

1. Duke +6.5 over Miami: I’m a Duke believer. All the Blue Devils do is win football games and cover spreads for me this year. This is the week where David Cutcliffe’s team gets in the rankings by beating the Hurricanes outright.
2. USC -4 at Washington State: This is going to be a very good year for Mike Leach’s team, but the Cougars aren’t up to the caliber as the Trojans. Plus, the little not-ready-for-the-NFL comment Leach made about Sam Darnold will come back to haunt him.
3. Vanderbilt +9 at Florida: The Commodores talked smack and got put in their place by Alabama like the little brother they are last week. They’ve been quieter this week, and I like VU to go into Gainesville and give Ralph Webb a big win against his hometown team. They’ll at least cover.
4. Central Michigan-Boston College under 51: Neither of these teams can score. That tells you all you need to know.
5. Iowa +3.5 at Michigan State: I still don’t believe in Brian Lewerke and the Spartans, who looked bad against Notre Dame last week. I think the Hawkeyes are better than the Irish, and I can’t believe they’re getting points. They win outright, so play the money line.
6. Southern Miss -8 vs. North Texas: Maybe I’m just looking too much at the olden days of these programs, but the Mustard Buzzards aren’t bad, and they’re playing at home. They’ll cover.
7. MTSU +3 at Florida Atlantic: This is my favorite play of the day. We still don’t know if Brent Stockstill or Richie James will play for the Blue Raiders, but Lane Kiffin’s program isn’t there yet. MTSU will win.
8. Rutgers +30 vs. Ohio State: The Buckeyes will win this easily, but they’ve not blown anybody out really this year. Rutgers is bad but not atrocious. They’ll keep it within four touchdowns.

By the way, want a Vols score? It’s gonna be 31-20 Dawgs.

My seat in Section Q at Neyland Stadium today was in the shade and out of the searing Knoxville heat. That’s OK. I was fuming so much watching that game that I probably kept everybody sitting around me sweating.

Yeah, I was angry watching Tennessee sleepwalk through a 17-13 win-that-felt-like-a-loss over arguably one of the five worst Football Bowl Subdivision teams in the nation. UMass had lost to Hawaii, Coastal Carolina, Old Dominion and Temple entering Saturday’s game. Yet, there they were, trading punches with a team we expect to be competing for the SEC East in Year 5 of Butch Jones’ regime.

These Minutemen were a baaaaaaad football team. If you thought Jones’ seat was warm, you couldn’t even touch Mark Whipple’s without getting burned.

Yet, there was UMass, stymying Tennessee on drive after drive no matter who played quarterback for the Vols and with multiple opportunities to outright beat them in the fourth quarter. It was inexplicable. Baffling. Unacceptable.

But, for all the venom I could spew here that would do no good, all you need to know is this: In my 27 years of attending football games in Neyland Stadium, I’ve perhaps never seen a fan base so apathetic as I saw on Saturday. There was more anger during the Derek Dooley years, sure, but how many times have you seen a half-empty Neyland during the fourth quarter of a four-point game?

The crowd was announced at more than 95,000 (it wasn’t). By the time the Vols secured the win late in the fourth quarter, maybe 50K fans sat in their seats. It was quiet, listless, frustrated.

If I’m Jones, that’s what I’m worried about.

The Vols are 3-1, with a chance to still make plenty of noise in the SEC and secure some positivity in this season. Yes, they also could go 7-5 or 6-6. Right now, probably more fans are expecting the latter than the former. But you need butts in the seats. You need the coffers full. You need folks caring.

I didn’t see it Saturday.

This team needs a jump-start; a win over a Georgia team that looks awfully good against Mississippi State as I type this up, would be a start. A victory against Alabama ain’t happening, so — as Will wrote earlier this afternoon — this weekend’s game against the Bulldogs is in all likelihood where the two potential roads of Jones’ UT career diverge. It very well may be his Waterloo.

They may need a jump-start on the season, but against the Minutemen, the Vols needed an alarm clock. They hit the snooze button in the first half and never woke up. Let’s put it this way: We sat behind a nice couple from White House, Tennessee, who has a son in the Pride of the Southland Band. The excitement around our seats when he was playing the trumpet on the field was the best thing that happened all day.

I took my 7-year-old son to a Vols game, and a drawing party broke out. He sat most of the second half with his head buried in his drawing pad, doodling pictures of monsters. Meanwhile, I was watching the Vols and battling the ones in my head. “How do I write about this and stay respectful?” and “Is this the beginning of the end?”

Things like that raced through my brain, and they raced through yours, too. Some of those spewed out onto my Twitter, and they did on yours, too. We want to be fair, and we all want Butch to succeed. But the bottom line is right now, it doesn’t feel like he will. Again, the decisions he made on Saturday were puzzling, to say the least. Even if we all wanted to see what Jarrett Guarantano could do, was that really the best time to put him in? Do we have to run up the middle on every single first-down play? Can we target Marquez Callaway just once? These decisions — Butch’s decisions — continue to confound.

Look, we’re all mad. We all see what’s happening, and it’s bad. We as fans aren’t the problem, but we also aren’t helping. How much have you voiced your displeasure on message boards or in 140 characters or less? They are like giving in to those momentary sins; they may make you feel better in the moment, but they ultimately accomplish nothing.

The biggest voices that were heard Saturday were the ones that didn’t shout, the ones who were there at the start of the UMass game, but not the end.

I’m not condoning that, and I’m not judging it, either. I stayed until the bitter end, like I have in all but one game I attended in my life, when I drove an older friend up, and he wanted to get a head start on traffic rather than stick around. The Vols lost that night.

On Saturday morning, it felt like a loss even though a win went in the record books. Why? Because Jones lost us a little more; we’re a little further down the rabbit hole of believing a change may be needed, and while none of us want that to happen, we’re at the point of his coaching tenure where we’re pointing to one game (next week) where we’ll be an underdog at home that may define whether or not he’s got a future in Knoxville.

Say what you want about whether or not Jones is on the “hot seat.” Call it what you will. I don’t care if you say he’s “teetering on the brink,” “needing some positive vibes” or “approaching a turning point.” Whatever you want to say, if one game is a defining moment of a season or a coaching career, that’s a pretty warm predicament.

Prior to the season, I’d heard from people around the program I trust that Jones’ job was in “no danger” this year. Athletic director John Currie already came out this past week and commended the job Butch has done again. So, you can take him at his word, or you can take that as coachspeak from a savvy administrator who sees no reason to douse anything in what is — ultimately — a 3-1 team with plenty for which to play. Why would Currie say anything otherwise now? There’s no reason to.

I believe Jones and the Vols still hold this coaching staff’s future — and this season — in their hands, regardless of what happened last week or what happened Saturday. As Jones loves to say to the media, you put your resume on film. He speaks that about his players, and he dissects every day in practice and every game to make those determinations on who should be playing and who should be sitting.

After the next few weeks, Jones’ resume will be on film. He’s been a gameday liability a lot of times throughout his time at Tennessee, but he’s got some time to turn it around. If the Vols can get on a hot streak and play up to their talents and capabilities, we’ll see soon enough if Jones can be the guy to take this team to the next level. If they don’t take care of business over the next few weeks, well, that’ll tell us all we need to know, too, won’t it?

Saturday felt hopeless at times sitting there in Section Q, looking down at my little boy who’d shaken his pom-pom and sang Rocky Top and watched them run through the “T” and, then, lost interest. Most of that is because he’s 7 and just doesn’t understand the game, sure. But I looked around at the stadium, and it hadn’t been filled with 7-year-olds. It had been filled with men, women, boys and girls who came to Knoxville to watch the Vols and — at some point during a hot, disappointing morning — decided they had better things to do.

A lot of that is fairweather fans and frustration. But some of it is spending hard-earned money and free time to sit there and be angry, and some people just won’t do it, for better or worse, agree or disagree.

It’s up to Jones and the Vols to change their minds. It starts next week against Georgia. That’s where the narrative will be written, on this season, and maybe even on Jones’ regime.

 

If you’re finished crying … or drinking … or spitting anger after last week’s coaching debacle that led to a 26-20 What-the-Hail?!!? Mary win by Florida over the Vols, it’s time to get back on the horse and get ready to play the Minutemen.

Hey, that’s one mascot we can all identify with, amirite?

Anyway, onward and upward. None of us are happy with Butch Jones right now, but we need to snap and clear, build back our emotions brick by brick as individuals and get back to being champions of life. It’s UMASS WEEK, after all! WOOHOO! Win comin’!

Speaking of wins, last week, I went 4-2 in my picks, upping my record to 10-7-1 on the season. That’s not bad. We’re improving every week, getting there. It’ll come. Maybe by year seven [in Jones years]. Who’d have thought UCLA would get out-gunned by Memphis? I sure didn’t. Also, the Vols were getting 5.5 points in Gainesville, and they were two touchdowns better with decent coaching. I don’t feel bad about that loss, relatively speaking.

The others were pretty easy. Tulsa lost but easily within the 10.5 points it was getting. That Missouri-Purdue under 78.5 never even got close, Clemson trounced Louisville and North Carolina (a 7.5 favorite) beat Old Dominion by 30. Good week for the good guy, even if it wasn’t for the Good Guys.

Anyway, UT is 2-1, and that’s all we care about. Let’s first take a look at last week’s keys and find out why they’re 2-1. It’s because they didn’t listen to me.

• Take care of the ball: Nope. This didn’t happen. Quinten Dormady threw three interceptions, including one inside the 10-yard line and one that was returned for a touchdown. That’s inexplicable when you’re playing against a team like Florida. You simply can’t do it. The Vols did it. FAIL!
• Impose your will: Nope. Tennessee did this at times through the game, riding John Kelly. But the Vols didn’t do it when it mattered most. They had seven and-goal downs against the Gators, and all seven of them were passes. One was completed for zero yards. That’s awful. As good as Larry Scott was in the first two games, he was terrible in the game that mattered most so far. FAIL!
• Cover those edges: This was much, much, much better. The Gators struggled to sustain drives and couldn’t get anything going offensively for much of the game. It was a much-improved game by the defense, until the last play of the game, that is. SUCCESS!
• Get a game-changer: This never happened for the Vols, and you feel like Kelly was close. Instead, the Gators got a pick-six and then the 63-yard incredible completion on a beautiful bomb by Feleipe Franks on the game’s final play. FAIL!
• Be the aggressor: Same ol’ sloppy, timid Tennessee against the Gators. The Vols tried to do better in the fourth quarter, and you have to give it to the players for fighting. But the coaches coached soft. FAIL!

That’s one out of five. That’ll get you beat every time.

KEYS

Get Guarantano Extended Reps

The talented Tennessee redshirt freshman quarterback hasn’t played enough yet for us to really know what we’ve got with him. While Q hasn’t really lost the starting QB job, he hasn’t seized it yet, either. What if what the Vols have on the sideline is the next star signal-caller, and he just needs a chance? If he comes out and lights up the Minutemen, I’m not suggesting you start him against Georgia, but this UMass team is awful. You need to get Guarantano some key reps just in case Dormady continues to struggle with his ball placement and decision making.

Both of these signal-callers are talented. But only one of them is getting the most important reps. These coaches need to prepare for anything, and that means Guarantano needs to be ready. The only way he gets that way is with extended action.

Can I Get a Shamburger, Please?

All we heard about throughout the preseason was how impressive Tennessee freshman cornerback Shawn Shamburger was. The same goes for fellow cornerback Cheyenne Labruzza and safety Theo Jackson.

Well, I think it’s time to play at least Shamburger.

No matter how much Justin Martin hustled and batted that ball through the end zone for a touchback last week, it’s not been a good start to the season for the senior. What do you lose getting Shamburger a lot of action against UMass? What if he’s a star-in-the-making? Jackson looks primed to be the No. 3 safety with Todd Kelly Jr. out for the year, so it’s important that he gets some reps, too. But the Vols need help in the secondary. This is the right time to do it.

Ty Time

One positive for the Vols coaches last week was the package that they put in for freshman running back Ty Chandler. We all know John Kelly is a horse, and you’d like to get him enough yards in a quarter or two to set him up for some postseason accolades, sure, but those things aren’t important. The most important thing is that he’s healthy for the gauntlet UT must endure in October.

Plus, Chandler needs a long look as a primary back. Let’s give him 20 touches and see what happens. I think we’ll all be pleasantly surprised, and Kelly will get a rest, too.

Don’t Get Anybody Hurt

Again, we touched on this with Kelly above, but UT is averaging about one season-ending injury per week. Can we stop this trend? Please?

Let the Byrd Fly

Remember when Tyler Byrd flipped from Miami to Tennessee and we thought we had one of the best incoming playmakers that we’d had in years? Yeah, he is still talented. We just don’t get him the football.

It’s asinine that Tennessee is playing Byrd on offense, but whatever. The Vols say they’ve got him over there because he needs the ball in his hands. Well, then, GET HIM THE BALL!

It’s time for him to have an expanded role. This is getting ridiculous. We’re wasting a great talent. Throw him the ball or put him at cornerback where he’s an NFL player.

LOCKS

Either I’m seeing things incredibly well this week, or I’m going to get taken to the cleaners. Two or three of these look too good to be true. That means they probably are. But I’m 10-7-1, so I’m gonna keep going with my gut.

1. Utah -3.5 over Arizona: I don’t get this one at all. The Utes probably aren’t good enough to be ranked, but just because the Wildcats blew out UTEP doesn’t mean they’re suddenly good. They aren’t. I like coach Kyle Whittingham’s team by double digits.
2. West Virginia -21.5 over Kansas: In the past two weeks, Central Michigan beat this Jayhawks team by 18 (then went on to get crushed at Syracuse), then Ohio beat them by 12. Now, you’re telling me that Will Grier and Co. won’t win by more than three touchdowns? The only way this doesn’t cover is if the Mountaineers are resting starters.
3. Duke -2.5 over North Carolina: I believe in Duke. I believe in David Cutcliffe. I believe in quarterback Daniel Jones. And I believe in the Blue Devils’ top-ranked rush defense. This is a team good enough to be ranked. The Tar Heels? Not so much.
4. Florida -2.5 over Kentucky: I don’t believe in Kentucky. I know the Wildcats believe they found something a week ago in a shocking road win at South Carolina. And the Gators certainly aren’t world-beaters. But they’re better than UK. They’ll win by a touchdown or more.
5. Oregon -14 over Arizona State: Again, this is one I do not get. I believe this Oregon team is rolling under Willie Taggart and behind Royce Freeman. The Sun Devils cannot stop anybody. Tons of points will be scored, but the Ducks will score a lot more.
6. Tulsa -10 over New Mexico: Tulsa is a winner against the spread. I like winners. I ride winners. The Golden Hurricane has been money for a lot of weeks for me [if gambling were legal]. I’m gonna keep riding them.
7. San Diego State -3.5 over Air Force: Two good, well-coached teams going at it in what is a very important Mountain West Conference game. But this is a low spread, even if the Aztecs are on the road. They’ve got the best runner in the nation you don’t know about in Rashaad Penny and a solid defense. They’ll cover.
8. Oklahoma State -12.5 over TCU: Remember what I said about winners? Mason Rudolph and Co. are winners. I don’t think the Horny Toads can hang.

The injury bug has turned into more of an epidemic around the Tennessee football program over the past two years.

After two of the Vols’ most important players — middle linebacker Darrin Kirkland Jr. and receiver Jauan Jennings — were lost for the year before the season really even started, UT received word over the past few days that they’d be without two more defensive starters — seniors safety Todd Kelly Jr. and outside linebacker Cortez McDowell.

Losing Kirkland and Jennings without question were major blows to the Vols. But the past two significant losses are only really significant due to depth, experience and leadership. Yes, all of those are important factors for a football team, but it’s highly probable that defensive coordinator Bob Shoop is now going to be forced to play even more physically gifted players.

Simply put: There’s at least equivalent if not more talented players ready to go; it’s just a matter of getting them out there and hoping they develop.

Before I get into this point, please don’t misinterpret. These guys’ injuries aren’t a positive. You never want to lose leaders like Kelly — a legacy — and McDowell, who’ve played some vital plays for UT over the past three seasons. It would be doing those kids a disservice to paint it that way, and that’s not the intent.

But Kelly has been forced to play much of the past two seasons with a hurt knee. If he can get surgery to clean it up and come back for a final season healthy next year, it will benefit him and the Vols down the road. The injury has kept Kelly from flying all over the field, and, at times, he’s been a liability in coverage because of it.

The Vols are a faster, more talented secondary when Nigel Warrior and Micah Abernathy are out there, and freshman Theo Jackson is going to see an increase in his role after coaches raved about him throughout the preseason. He’s the future at the position, along with commitments Brendon Harris and Trey Dean. If it seems that UT is always looking to the “future,” well, join the club. I feel that way, too. But the bottom line is this defense lacks SEC playmakers, and a trio of Warrior/Abernathy/Jackson advances that once those guys get in game reps.

Of course, the flip side of that is receivers getting behind you for 63-yard, game-winning, soul-crushing touchdowns, but then again, the bulk of that blame should go to Shoop, who had no business allowing that to happen.

At linebacker, McDowell and Colton Jumper on the field at the same time gave the Vols a seasoned duo who can get guys lined up and who knows all the calls. But it also is arguably the slowest linebacking corps in the conference. Though Jumper will continue to see significant snaps, McDowell’s injury means more playing time for speedy redshirt sophomore Quart’e Sapp.

I’m not at practice every day, and neither are any of the reporters. So, it would be unfair to comment on how these kids go about their business each day. But Sapp made several plays against the Gators once he got on the field and didn’t look out of place at all. He looked like an SEC linebacker with plenty of speed to boot. Also, there’s a possibility that UT will play freshmen Will Ignont and Shanon Reid with McDowell sidelined for the season. Of course, it probably means more Elliott Berry, but if Shoop knows what’s best for this team, he’ll get the young guys a lot of reps this week against UMass and get them prepared to play some meaningful plays in bigger games. Austin Smith could factor into the rotation, too, if he ever gets healthy.

So, while the Vols may have lost a veteran pair in TKJr. and McDowell, they got faster and more talented. That doesn’t mean they got smarter, and given the frequency of busts in the past two years, you could understand why Shoop can’t rely on them. Now, he may have to. That could lead to some bumps in the road, but it also could lead to the Vols having players that can do exciting things on defense rather than just plodding along.

One thing this coaching staff has struggled with — and it’s something that must be in the water in Knoxville — is playing the most talented players. Instead, they go with veterans, and that isn’t always the best. Remember when Phillip Fulmer insisted on Jarrod Parish at safety? How about Mark Levine when Jamal Lewis stood on the sideline? Who’s lurking over there on the sideline that we don’t know about?

After all, Daniel Bituli wasn’t expected to play that much, and he went out and got 23 tackles against Georgia Tech and has been the Vols’ best defender this year. Yeah, he might have gotten benched for a few series against Florida, but I can’t explain that, either.

When the Vols lost to Florida on Saturday, I wrote that when you have a young but talented team, you need to treat them more like they’re talented instead of young. Head coach Butch Jones would do well to heed that advice. What he’s been throwing out there isn’t always cutting it. Why not give other players a try?

Remember how excited we all were when Tyler Byrd flipped from Miami to Tennessee on national signing day eve? Where is that kid? He needs to play. Jones told the media on Monday that Byrd was going to have an increased role. Even if it’s on the wrong side of the ball, it’s about time. Dynamic athletes like that don’t need to stand on the sideline. As awesome as John Kelly is, this staff needed to have a package to get Ty Chandler more touches. We saw that against the Gators, and the freshman’s role needs only to increase.

There doesn’t just need to be “packages” for your difference-makers. They need to be on the field. If they can’t learn what they need to learn to be there, that’s on the coaches. It has come time for Tennessee to turn the corner as a program. There’s no way the Vols should be putting inferior athletes on the field. If they do, it’s an indictment of the program. None of us believe the Vols are out-classed on the field. Have you seen the past few recruiting classes? They’ve been plenty good enough to win.

If the development is where it needs to be, those kids need to be playing. If it’s not, there needs to be some serious changes. It’s time these coaches put some kids on the field who will make a difference on offense and defense, and, most importantly, in wins and losses.

Given the circumstances of the injuries and the players who will be getting their chances, I guess we’ll see the reason they’ve been on the sideline or see why they should have been playing all along. It’s that “next-man-up” mentality that every team needs. It’s why you recruit. It’s why you build depth. And it’s what killed UT a season ago.

For the Vols’ sake and for Jones’, hopefully that won’t happen again this year.

 

Tennessee did a noble thing on Saturday after Hurricane Irma by putting “Florida Strong” on the back of their helmets.

Unfortunately for the Vols, they were Tennessee Soft in key moments against the Florida Gators, failing to be the aggressor until too late and losing on a 63-yard missile of a Hail Mary from Feleipe Franks to Tyrie Cleveland on the final play of the game.

It was a very familiar way to lose.

After all, this is the Vols. And those were the Gators.

Even when Florida isn’t the FLORIDA of old, Tennessee can’t take advantage and move beyond them in the SEC East.

Inexplicable mistakes cost the Vols in this one, and, for that reason, the “fire Butch Jones” crowd will only grow. This Tennessee team was better than that Florida team, plain and simple. Yet, none of that mattered. Tennessee found a way to mess it up when it mattered most.

Just look at the costly mistakes that marred UT’s chances, even before the eye-covering, cringe-worthy finale.

Losing 6-3 and facing a 1st-and-goal from the 1-yard line, UT refused to give the football to savage running back John Kelly a single time. The Vols didn’t even get to attempt a game-tying field goal because Quinten Dormady threw one of his three interceptions on third down for a momentum-crushing play.

When the Vols finally scored a touchdown on a brilliant Kelly run, he gave the crowd the Gator chomp, drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that led to a great return, a short field and a UF touchdown. For a great player, that was a costly, stupid mistake.

But, even then, Tennessee refused to quit. Kelly and Co. took the ball right down the field, and Dormady found Ethan Wolf for a touchdown to trim the lead to three again.

After a fantastic interception late in the game where Nigel Warrior got his hand on the football, tipping it up to allow Rashaan Gaulden to pick off the football, the Vols once again marched down to the 10-yard line. Rather than run Kelly, who’d gassed the Gators defense, the Vols threw it three more times. The worst thing about that for UT is the play was there on a second-down pass to Kelly, who dropped the would-be, game-winning touchdown. He’d have walked in. Then, Marquez Callaway couldn’t haul in a perfect fade on the next play.

After an errant throw went wide to Kelly, the Vols tied the game 20-20 with under a minute to go, thinking surely it would go into overtime, where they’d have a marked advantage with Kelly.

But that’s not what happened.

Somehow, a Bob Shoop defense that had been very good for much of the day, let Tyrie Cleveland behind the safeties. Franks showed his cannon arm with a pass that traveled 60-65 yards in the air into the outstretched arms of his receiver, and all Micah Abernathy and Warrior could do was put their heads in their hands as Florida celebrated.

It was an embarrassing finish to an embarrassing loss that saw the players bring their team all the way back with a frantic fourth quarter and then lose. It was hard to watch, and it’s going to be hard to relive over the course of the next year or more. Think about how much UT fans have let Georgia have it following the Dobbs-nail boot Hail Mary last year. This is that, except it’s Florida.

Yeah, it’s Florida.

For some reason, the Gators play with that same ol’ swagger against Tennessee every year. They aren’t good, but the Vols make them good. They make coaching blunders, wait too long to turn up the heat and then bank on everything going perfectly down the stretch to win.

They got burned on Saturday. The team that leads the nation with five comeback wins from 10-point deficits in the past two years got ready to shoot the moon again, only to find a broken arrow in the quiver.

That’s not even mentioning Dormady’s three interceptions and three missed field goals that could have swung the game in Tennessee’s favor time after time. There were just too many blunders, but there were also plenty of players who weren’t relied on to make plays until it was almost too late.

If you’re a defensive coordinator, how do you not play your safeties way back, guarding against the prayer of a pass? If you’re the offensive coordinator, how do you continue to line up in the shotgun formation in short-yardage situations and fail to give the football to Kelly when points are on the line? If you’re the head coach, how do you allow this to happen?

There was criticism right before the season from an NFL scout who anonymously told a reporter who covers the Vols that several Vols were soft. I don’t believe that’s the case. They maybe made some dumb plays on Saturday like letting Cleveland by them or drawing unneccessary unsportsmanlike penalties that wound up with devastating consequences, but they didn’t play soft.

This team coached soft. Jones coached soft. Offensive coordinator Larry Scott coached soft. And on the biggest play of the game, somehow UT’s hard-nosed defense softened just enough to do the only thing it couldn’t afford to do.

#Vols HC Butch Jones: “It’s on me, we have to do a better job on our overall discipline, our fundamentals, our details.”

— Mike Griffith (@MikeGriffith32) September 16, 2017

When you have a young but talented team, the coaching staff needs to treat you like you’re talented a lot more than treat you like you’re young. That didn’t happen on Saturday, and the wrong team was celebrating because of it if you’re a Vols fan.

Two years after Tennessee found an impossible way to lose on a 63-yard pass to Antonio Callaway on a 4th-and-14 play when it looked like it had the game won, the Vols found another way to get beat on a 63-yard pass that rained down from the heavens into the arms of Cleveland on Ben Hill Griffin Stadium’s end zone turf.

Get ready for the criticism to rain down on Jones and Co. for finding another way to lose an important game; one where the Vols made enough plays to win but also enough mistakes to lose. When that happens, it comes down to the things that happened throughout the course of the game you look back on and shake your head.