Butch Jones’ days in Knoxville are coming to an end after losing to the Alabama on Saturday. Here are three realistic replacements for Jones at Tennessee.
It’s inevitable. The Tennessee Volunteers have to get a new head coach. Butch Jones has seen his 2017 Volunteers fall to 3-4 (0-4) on the season. Tennessee hasn’t won an SEC game this season with losses to the Florida Gators, the Georgia Bulldogs, the South Carolina Gamecocks and the Alabama Crimson Tide.
To make matters worse, the Volunteers have not scored an offensive touchdown since Sept. 24. That came against the doormat UMass Minutemen, who the Volunteers almost lost to. Tennessee didn’t even find pay dirt in the second half of that gimme game.
The Tennessee faithful have turned their backs on Jones, who will only chalk up another redundant cliche he makes up on the spot to explain how he is not getting it done in Rocky Top. Tennessee is a top-10 program all-time and a top-15 job in the country. Vol Nation deserves better.
Firing Jones mid-season won’t help the program, but this is a lost year for the Volunteers anyway. However, doing so will allow the university to better target its next head coach. But let’s be real. Chip Kelly wants no part of this job and Jon Gruden is happy in the Monday Night Football booth at ESPN. Here are three realistic choices to replace Jones should Tennessee part ways with its failing head football coach.
Clearly, the Oregon Ducks made the wrong decision to promote former offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich to head coach once Kelly went to the NFL to coach the Philadelphia Eagles in 2013. Helfrich may have led the Ducks to a national title appearance in the first College Football Playoff, but a 4-8 record in 2016 ousted him from Eugene.
Oregon did have another worthy head coaching candidate on its staff, but it just didn’t know it at the time. The one guy we’re referring to here is UCF Knights head coach Scott Frost. Frost took over a terrible Knights program in 2016 and has amassed a 12-7 (8-4) in 1.5 years on the job.
UCF is undefeated at 6-0 (4-0) in The American and ranked in the top-25. The Knights are very much in play to get the Group of 5 bid for a New Year’s Six bowl. UCF is historically a strong mid-major program in a football-rich state in its 39-year history. The problem is that it’s the fourth or fifth football program in its own state.
By taking the Tennessee job, Frost will be the top dog in The Volunteer State. He will have all the resources to be successful on campus. With his background of coaching in the Pac-12, the Big 12 at Kansas State and in Florida at UCF, Frost will have the reach to be the effective recruiter to help get Tennessee back on top.