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!

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.
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.
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.
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.
UCLA -2 over Arizona: Again, I love Rosen. Bruins cover easily.
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.
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.
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.