Butch Jones’ tenure at Tennessee has all been a 3-yard short Hail Mary
Butch Jones’ seat at Tennessee just got even hotter after a Hail Mary fell short against Kentucky, but that’s been the story of his entire tenure.
The Tennessee Volunteers dropped to 0-5 in the SEC and 3-5 overall on the 2017 season in Week 9. However, Butch Jones’ struggles continued in the most heartbreaking fashion.
Trailing the Kentucky Wildcats by just three points (a lead they took late in the fourth quarter), Jarrett Guarantano completed a 48-yard Hail Mary to Jeff George to complete a 72-yard drive in just 33 seconds. The issue, however, is that they needed to go 75 yards to get the game-winning score.
After falling three yards short of the first in-conference victory of the season, the hot seat for Jones is now scalding. The head coach has been much maligned for a couple of years now, but this season has been the culmination of his shortcomings. And really, coming up three yards short on a Hail Mary, both literally on Saturday night and figuratively in a grander sense, is the defining characteristic of his time in Knoxville.
Going back to his first season with the program in 2013, it’s been one competitive game and season after another. However, the expectation for the Volunteers and the faithful that fill Neyland Stadium in bright orange isn’t being “competitive” — it’s being a winner. And frankly, Jones hasn’t done that, at least not on any real level.
Back-to-back 9-4 seasons in 2015 and 2016 look fine enough. But when you break them down, it shows what Jones has always been about since donning the orange polo to complement his anger-reddened face. Excluding bowl games, Jones had just three wins against ranked opponents over those two 9-4 campaigns. And two of those last season came against Florida and Georgia, two teams that were in relative turmoil (or at least severely flawed) a year ago.
That’s not to say he’s not had Tennessee in some big games. They went to double-overtime with then No. 8 Texas A&M last year. What’s more, they lost by just five points to the eventual National Champion Crimson Tide in 2015. But again, the Volunteers aren’t a team and program built on five-point losses or falling only three yards short. It’s about results. And when it comes to these big games, Jones simply has too few results.
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Frankly, it feels like there’s nothing that Jones can do to save his job at this point. There have been plenty of other issues throughout his tenure with the Volunteers. Having said that, the loss to Kentucky on Saturday night was a microcosm of the primary reason why his tenure won’t last beyond 2017.
It’s a great moral victory to know you were only three yards shy of a win. But moral victories don’t help you keep your job when you reside in Neyland Stadium.