What just happened?

You wake up, a blurry sky slowly coming into focus. Your head is pounding. You think you might be bleeding. You blink.

Oh. Right. You just got your butt kicked. That’s what happened. You hope the guy’s gone, because right now, you can’t even move, and you need some time to recover.

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Butch Jones is saying about the only thing there is to say after the Vols got dominated by the Georgia Bulldogs, 41-0 at Neyland Stadium on Saturday: There are “no excuses.” The team is “very concerned,” about the “inexcusable” offensive numbers. Numbers like 142 total offensive yards and two interceptions. Numbers like seven first downs to four turnovers. Numbers like 41-0. Numbers like 1905, the last time something like this happened at home.

But the words predictably do nothing to shoo away the vultures that, circling high a week before, now begin to test the safety of the ground: Butch Jones is in trouble. His Georgia is just like Dooley’s Kentucky. He’s past the point of no return. He’s a dead coach walking.

The worst thing? There’s almost nothing good to learn from this game. The Vols are looking for answers, but there are just too many [Fulmerized] questions.

Quarterbacks

Quinten Dormady had zero turnovers after the first game and a half of the season. Since then, he’s thrown six interceptions and lost two fumbles. Jones says now that every position, including the quarterback position, is up for grabs and that “the individuals who have the best week of practice” will start. The problem with that is that it’s the same thing he said all summer and all fall camp, and Dormady reportedly doesn’t turn the ball over in practice. We wonder, at what point do the coaches start evaluating on game tape?

The other problem: Jarrett Guarantano hasn’t looked any better. Of course, he hasn’t thrown any interceptions in games, yet, either, but maybe that’s from lack of opportunity. Has Dormady learned valuable lessons from the interceptions he’s thrown, or might he be interception-prone? Might Guarantano need to throw six interceptions, too, until he zeroes in on the bullseye? Who knows?

Punting. Wait, what?

I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I spent a good half hour before driving to the game just intentionally getting in the right frame of mind. I was hoping for and actually expecting a close game (as was almost everybody else), but I was also mentally prepared for a rout, so I was girded against the effects of that. The only thing that I was totally unprepared for was a rugby-style punt from Trevor Daniel, who’s been probably the best and most consistent player on the team the past three years. Thanks to Daniel, punting was literally like one of three or four things that wasn’t broken as late as last week. The guy has a handle on depth, accuracy, and hang time, every single thing you want in a punter. So, when Daniel attempted a rugby punt Saturday, an entirely new style for him, I lost the wheel and my mind careened off into the ditch for a brief minute. I would love to know whose decision that was and what they were thinking. I’m open to a reasonable explanation, but for the life of me, I can’t think what that would be. Fix the things that are broken and keep your hands off the things that are working. It’s not like there aren’t enough broken things to focus on. SERENITY NOW!

Where do we go from here?

Jones says it’s “gut-check time,” and that “The only thing you can do in life when things go wrong and they don’t go according to plan, is you have to get back up and you have to go to work the next day.”

That’s true, and it’s the only way forward. Without any snark whatsoever, I’ll say I truly admire his grit and determination. And it’s true that the preseason expectation of 8-4 is technically still on the list of goals for this year’s team, even if the reasonableness of that goal is now reasonably being questioned.

And I’ll also just say this before moving on: Jones’ future won’t be determined by Paul Finebaum, Clay Travis, Tom Fornelli, me, or you. Unless your name is John Currie, your title is John Currie’s Boss, or you write checks to the University with lots of zeroes, you’re not making the decision. I always root for the pilot of the plane that I’m on. If and when someone with decision-making authority decides to have someone else take over, then I’ll root for that guy.

Players’ reactions

After having read through pretty much everything that’s out there this afternoon — well, everything except Twitter, which I’m avoiding because I already know what lurks there — the one thing that I really liked came from the lips of Colton Jumper:

“I think this is really when you find out who you really are. I think everybody’s true character is going to come about.”

At times like these, you find out who you are.

The positives

Even in times like these, though, you can find some positives if you look for them. Blue-chip quarterback commit Adrian Martinez was in town to witness the whole thing, and his commitment to Tennessee remains steadfast:

“No. I’m not going to lie. I was obviously upset, but I’m a Tennessee fan and I want us to do well. The coaches weren’t thrilled with it either. I think a performance like that is unacceptable, but it doesn’t sway me one way or another. I’m hoping when I come here (to Tennessee) and when I really dive into the playbook and get affiliated with things, I can make an impact and we can start winning games.”

In other good news, Quart’e Sapp had a great game, and Kendal Vickers, Colton Jumper, Micah Abernathy, and Nigel Warrior all did mostly well. In fact, the defense looked ready to play had they not been asked to do it all. Oh, and the Peyton Manning halftime presentation was cool.

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.

The Tennessee Volunteers host the the Georgia Bulldogs today at 3:30 in Neyland Stadium. If you can’t be there, this is the second-best place to watch. The game’s on CBS.

• Kickoff: 3:30 p.m. ET
• Listen online
• Watch online
• Live Stats

In case you haven’t seen it yet, you absolutely must watch the Peyton Manning video that VFL Films put together:

And there’s also this:

Get your Guessing Game answers in before the game kicks off.

Once the Vols game is over, shift to watching the rest of today’s college football slate. You can find our weekly college football TV schedule and rooting guide for Vols fans here, and that will serve as our “other games” thread as well.

The Tennessee Volunteers have to take care of business against the Georgia Bulldogs at 3:30 on Saturday. Assuming they do, there are some other games that will be important to the rest of the season as well, most notably Vanderbilt traveling to Florida.

Here’s the Week 5 college football TV schedule, curated for Vols fans. It includes kickoff times, TV stations, and what’s at stake in each game from the perspective of a Vols fan. It also includes helpful suggestions on how to watch everything most efficiently and who to root for in each game.

The full schedule for the entire weekend is also included at the bottom of the post.

Go Vols!

Thursday, September 28

Cows vs. corn? I’m going with the cows.

Friday, September 29

I know we Vols fans have a storehouse of affection for David Cutcliffe and everything, but we want Miami to be strong under Mark Richt so that they and Florida State can take as much of that Sunshine State talent away from the Florida Gators as possible. Go Canes. Also, I’m rooting for Mike Leach over whoever’s at USC now. I obviously care a lot.

Gameday, September 30

And then it’s Gameday.

The Vols are 3-1, but it’s been a pretty rough 3-1, and the team could really use a big win over Georgia Saturday. If they don’t get it, the rest of this stuff won’t matter nearly as much, but if they do, then watch and hope for the following as well:

Noon slot

Yeah, Vanderbilt got handled by Alabama. Who doesn’t? It doesn’t mean they can’t beat Florida. All they have to do is figure out how to keep Florida from getting lucky at the end of the game. Seriously, though, the Gators are running out of chances to lose, and Vandy actually does present a challenge.

Afternoon slot

At 3:30, it’s all guns blazing against the Georgia Bulldogs. If the Vols can get it done, everything is still in play.

Evening slot

Here’s where it really gets interesting.

• After the Vols game, tune in to #13 Auburn vs. #24 Mississippi State. Even if Tennessee beats Georgia, we’re almost certainly going to need Georgia to get another loss somewhere else. Auburn’s on the schedule, so we want them to present a challenge.
• After that, just channel hop through the rest of your evening as future opponents Southern Miss, LSU, and Alabama are all playing. When that gets boring, tune in to #2 Clemson at #12 Virginia Tech. I’m rooting for the Hokies in that one.

Complete college football TV schedule for Week 5

And here’s the complete schedule for the week, paginated and searchable!

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.