Category Archives: 2017 Coaching Search

The Knoxville nightmare is over.

Following Missouri’s 50-17 domination of Tennessee on Saturday night, athletic director John Currie has fired fifth-year head coach Butch Jones, according to multiple reports. FOXSports’ Bruce Feldman was the first to report Jones notified his staff this morning.

The ouster is effective immediately, and defensive line coach and associate head coach Brady Hoke will assume coaching responsibilities for the remainder of this woeful season.

The Vols are 0-6 in the SEC with games remaining against LSU and Vanderbilt at Neyland Stadium. After consecutive nine-win seasons under Jones, 2017 has been forgettable as UT has fallen apart. It’s arguable that this is worse than at any time during the Derek Dooley era.

What’s even more frustrating is lack of competitiveness. When you couple that to all the infighting, the embarrassment of Jones’ public comments, a losing streak against every single SEC program currently and the lack of player development, it was a no-brainer to part ways with Jones.

Controversies such as the Brett Kendrick concussion fiasco and Vol For Life coordinator Antone Davis’ not-so-quiet departure only contributed to the dysfunction in the final few weeks.

When asked by VolQuest.com’s Jesse Simonton on Saturday night if he still believed he had the full support of Currie, Jones quipped that at least Simonton was consistent in his questioning before his answer:

“The message is the same. We have two games left,” he said.

“It’s all about this football team and how we finish. We work exceptionally hard every single day. It’s very disappointing when you invest the way you invest each and every day to win on Saturdays.

“That’s what it’s all about. It’s about these seniors. It’s about these players. It ain’t about the coach. It ain’t about nothing but nothing else. It’s about our players and it’s about our seniors. Again, how do we finish? We have a great challenge Saturday night in Neyland against LSU. What a great opportunity.”

Jones was 34-27 in five seasons at Tennessee, but he finished 1-4 against Florida, despite being arguably better than the Gators in at least four of those years. He never sniffed Alabama in a game, either. The Jones era was characterized by baffling coaching decisions [consult the “chart”, anyone?], Butchisms such as “Champions for Life” and “Five-Star Hearts” that made Tennessee a national laughingstock, and that dumb garbage can that became is “Opportunity is NowHere” moment. There were also bizarre things such as Jalen Hurd quitting in the middle of last season and Shy Tuttle mysteriously “falling on a helmet.”

His ouster was met with some vitriol from people who knew and covered him. Knoxville radio personality and former UT player Jayson Swain tweeted this:

“My 1st reaction is not happiness. My thoughts immediately go to the former staff members, assts, & former players of Butch Jones. They had their world turned upside down & careers negatively impacted by probably one of the worst Human beings I’ve encountered In a long time.”

Former UT player Andrew Butcher tweeted a scene from “Elf” with Will Ferrell waving: “BYE!”

It was a frustrating affair with the media and fans, to say the least; one that turned nasty this year.

But there also were good things. Consecutive nine-win seasons hadn’t been accomplished at Tennessee since the Phillip Fulmer era. He was excellent for the grade-point average of the student-athletes, and he consistently put together top-15 recruiting classes.

But he failed to develop those players into championship-caliber athletes. Then, when quarterback Joshua Dobbs, cornerback Cameron Sutton, running back Alvin Kamara, defensive end Derek Barnett and others left, the program fell apart on the field.

That’s ultimately led to Jones’ undoing.

When it became evident that mediocrity may be the ceiling under Jones and that the lowest-lows of 2017 could occur often, Currie had to cut bait. He did, and now, the Vols are looking for their fifth coach since 2008.

Finally, there was some recruiting fallout, as expected. Instate receiver Alontae Taylor will look around, he told Rivals.com’s Woody Wommack. He’s looking at schools such as Georgia, Georgia Tech and Wake Forest, among others. Also, receiver Shocky Jacques-Louis decommitted, and 4-star safety Trey Dean said he would “probably” decommit.

That’s not surprising; there’s always going to be recruiting fallout. But as the decommitment from 5-star offensive tackle Cade Mays proved last week, it already was falling apart. It’ll be interesting to see if and how the next coach can put together a solid class. The bottom line is that the Vols weren’t developing those players as well as they needed to with Jones, so if the ’18 class is a sacrifice, it’s a necessary one.

Keep it right here for updates, hot board candidates and columns throughout the day.

Fifteen years ago, it was easy to talk yourself into the Vols taking over the SEC East. Tennessee won the division in 2001, beating Steve Spurrier on his way to the NFL. A heartbreaking loss in Atlanta only fueled expectations for 2002, with the Vols ranked fifth in the preseason AP poll. It’s hard to believe now, but the SEC East was at the peak of its powers: the Gators were sixth, the Dawgs eighth in the initial poll. Even South Carolina snuck in at #22. Only Nick Saban’s LSU squad was ranked (#14) from the SEC West.

And yet, it’s hard for me to remember more preseason optimism in Knoxville. Riding high on the program’s success from 1995-2001, dominance was the next step and Spurrier was out of the way. Mark Richt and Georgia had upset the Vols the year before, but that loss ultimately didn’t cost Tennessee; it was still easy enough to fall back on UT’s 90’s dominance over the Dawgs. Winning in Gainesville chased away the final monkeys on Phillip Fulmer’s back, and no one believed Ron Zook would wrangle them back in place. When his Gators were blown out by Miami before coming to Knoxville, Tennessee smelled blood. 2002 was my last year in the student section and we were thinking blowout, a dream rarely available to Vol fans in this rivalry.

Instead, one of the strangest nightmares I’ve ever seen in Neyland: an absolute downpour led to five Tennessee fumbles in the last five minutes of the first half, turning a scoreless slugfest into a 24-0 Gator lead. The Vols fell 30-13, then lost 18-13 in Athens with Casey Clausen out due to injury.

While Tennessee stumbled to an 8-5 season, Georgia pounced. The Dawgs lost to Florida as well, but it would be their only blemish in a 13-1 SEC Championship campaign, Georgia’s first since 1982. It was also the first time someone other than Tennessee or Florida won the SEC East, setting the stage for a time of parity:  a three-way tie in 2003, the Vols back on top in 2004, and Georgia back in Atlanta in 2005.

By 2006 Urban Meyer had Florida back to being Florida, and the window got a lot smaller for both Tennessee and Georgia. In the last 10 years the Vols have been to Atlanta once (2007), and Georgia only twice:  merely an appetizer for LSU in 2011, then the nearest of misses against Alabama in 2012. While the Vols walked in the wilderness with three different coaches, Richt’s Georgia programs saw teams outside the Top 10 slide past them to Atlanta in 2010, 2014, and 2015.

Historically, this is Florida’s division: a dozen titles in 25 years, while Tennessee and Georgia had just five each coming into this season. As such, the Vols and Dawgs must take full advantage when the Gators aren’t at full strength. It took the best of Tennessee’s best to win three titles in five years at the end of Spurrier’s tenure. Georgia never won the division when the OBC was in Gainesville, and only went to Atlanta in Urban Meyer’s first year on those same sidelines.

When Florida was in transition 15 years ago, Mark Richt kept Tennessee from taking over. When the Gators started slipping again at the end of Will Muschamp’s tenure, another golden opportunity presented itself. But this time, Tennessee kept Tennessee from taking over. The Vols should be riding a four game winning streak over Florida and two straight SEC East titles. Instead, Tennessee got just one win over the Gators, failed to capitalize on two others over Georgia, and still hasn’t seen the SEC Championship Game since 2007.

The good news:  Florida is still vulnerable. The bad news:  Georgia called dibs.

Kirby Smart’s team is detonating the argument for the SEC being a mass of 8-4 behind Alabama. The Dawgs are 9-0 and yet to be threatened in the SEC. They buried what appears to be a good Mississippi State team 31-3 and, most importantly, beat Tennessee and Florida by a combined 83-7. They will graduate Nick Chubb, Sony Michel, and a good chunk of their starting defense. But they currently boast the nation’s fifth-best recruiting class, including 11 four-or-five-star commits for a blue chip ratio of 61%. Once-solid recruiting classes from the Vols and Gators are up in the air as their coaching situations resolve themselves.

Florida is down, but they tend not to stay there forever. Butch Jones missed his chance to take advantage in 2015 and 2016. Now all signs point to the Vols making a change at the end of 2017, embracing the speed bumps of transition in hopes of greater progress down the road. But Georgia is firmly in the driver’s seat, both in the division and, right now, in all of college football atop the playoff poll. It’s a small sample size for Kirby Smart, but an impeccable one in year two. If/when the Vols make a change, they should have the opportunity to make a better hire than in January 2010 or December 2012. But with Georgia dominating and the Gators looking to level up at the same time, it’s also a dangerous time for Tennessee. The opportunity to get it right is greater, but so too are the risks if the Vols get it wrong.

 

 

 

Last night John Currie broke his silence with an appearance on Big Orange Hotline on the Vol Network. GoVols247 has a complete transcript of his remarks as he answered questions from Bob Kesling (who I thought did a good job asking fairly direct questions to the AD on a university-run program). Or you can listen to it here:

ICYMI last night, John Currie joined us on Big Orange Hotline. You can listen to his interview here. https://t.co/0TNEBCpLGc

— Vol Network (@VolNetwork_IMG) October 31, 2017

One particular quote I found interesting:

“Again, you’ve got to step back and take kind of a big-picture view of where you are. And you also have to remember, as my father who passed away a couple of years ago, was a surgeon, right? And the surgeon’s creed is, ‘There’s no problem you can’t make worse by operating.’ So with any particular decision … you’ve got make decisions that you truly believe are best for your program.

“I believe that supporting our staff and supporting our players getting ready for the Southern Miss game is the best thing I can do for our football program right now.”

The vast majority of Tennessee fans would counter by saying the best thing he could do for the football program is make a coaching change. It has become almost impossible to find anyone – fans, local or national media, anyone – who disagrees.

Do we really think John Currie disagrees?

Those who were confused and/or upset by Currie’s silence probably aren’t feeling better by him breaking it this way. I thought the overall theme of his remarks last night was, “Support the players.” But I didn’t interpret anything in this interview to make me believe Currie’s support of Butch Jones this week will extend into next year.

Not a matter of if. A matter of when. We all know that. And we’re all working on it.

— Wes Rucker (@wesrucker247) October 29, 2017

At this point, there’s no need to make the argument for a coaching change. The context clues more than suggest Butch Jones is not going to be Tennessee’s coach in 2018. This, from all sides, is the decision that seems to be best for Tennessee’s football program. It may very well be the decision that is best for Butch Jones.

John Currie’s mission statement is, “Will it help us win?” There is sufficient evidence to believe the status quo will not help us win in the future. Will it help us win this Saturday? Is it what’s best for the program this week? When is the very best time to make things official?

I don’t know the answer to that. None of us do for sure.

We can all agree on the if, while disagreeing on the when. The new early signing period alone makes this uncharted territory for all of us, including John Currie.

Tennessee needs a transplant, and it may be as simple as the man holding the scalpel believes it’s best not to operate until you have a donor lined up. The if is far more important than the when as long as the when is before next season, and neither appear to be in doubt.

This season is already dead in terms of success, but keeping bowl eligibility alive isn’t irrelevant. We’ve long argued it is in Tennessee’s best interests for a team in desperate need of growth, and it’s also in Butch Jones’ best interests even if he’s on another sideline next year:  you want to be the guy who left Tennessee at 6-6, not 4-8. It can be in everyone’s best interests for Butch to still be on the sidelines the next few weeks while it is also in everyone’s best interests for him not to be on the sideline next year.

Far more important than when is who’s next. This time the Vols should have far more attractive options lined up, and not just one that owns property in Jefferson County. That process might have to officially wait until Jones is no longer Tennessee’s coach, but is no doubt unofficially underway.

Currie’s silence, both actual and when speaking, leaves himself open to the perception that Butch can still be saved. But there is little to suggest that perception represents reality. Consider the purpose behind boycotting the game Saturday and/or encouraging others to do the same. If it’s because you want Butch Jones gone, it seems to me that’s already coming. If it’s because you just want Butch Jones gone this week, none of us knows if that’s the very best course of action for Tennessee, for the rest of the season or in the search. If you want closure, I think most of us have lived long enough to realize you’re better off not waiting for the other party to get it.

You are of course entitled to your opinion and your pleasure with your tickets. But I still find no compelling reason to root against this team on Saturday, or to boycott; such a thing tends to end up doing more harm than good.

We all want to win. It’s not going to happen this year. But just because something doesn’t happen this week doesn’t mean something isn’t happening for next year. I don’t know what will help us win this week. I am hopeful we are serving the best interests of what will help us win long-term. That’s John Currie’s job. And that’s our job.

Go Vols.

 

GoVols247 is reporting that, according to its sources, Tennessee football head coach Butch Jones’ “fate has been decided, with only the timing and the announcement of his firing to be settled.”

According to the report, Jones and athletic director John Currie met Sunday to discuss the future of the program. The plan is reportedly to have Jones coach this week against Southern Miss, “barring any unforeseen developments,” but a decision has already been made. The timing of the official public announcement is not known at this time.