SEC Unbiased: Vols will never win a championship under Butch Jones

There are plenty of reasons why Alabama steamrolled over Tennessee this past Saturday.

Injuries obviously played a role. When you’re facing the greatest dynasty in college football history undermanned in the trenches and at linebacker—essentially the quarterback of the defense—it isn’t exactly shocking to surrender 438 yards on the ground while collecting only 163 yards of total offense.

Credit should also be given to the Crimson Tide’s coaching. Nick Saban further solidified himself as the nation’s best coach, while Lane Kiffin continues to embarrass his former employers.

Alabama’s gameplan on Saturday was a thing of beauty. Instead of depending on true freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts to execute through the air and make complicated decisions in a hostile environment, Kiffin called numerous designed runs and provided unique wrinkles within the read option. The simplified approach helped an already poised quarterback slowly chop away at the raucous Neyland crowd before Eddie Jackson’s punt return brought all of Knoxville to a dead silence.

But the primary reason why Tennessee lost to Alabama by such a shocking deficit is because Butch Jones is not an SEC-level coach. And as long as Jones is steering the ship on Rocky Top, it’ll continue to sink time and time again against the elite teams of the SEC West.

Jones isn’t a bad coach. He’s a quality head coach who has helped reestablish somewhat of a winning culture in Knoxville. If coaches were separated into tiers, Jones sits comfortably in the third tier, which is far higher than where Derek Dooley sat.

However, whenever Jones is challenged by a stronger head coach—ya know, the Sabans and Bob Stoops of the world—it’s nothing but tears for the orange and white.

There is a clear ceiling for Tennessee with Jones at the helm. That ceiling is winning the SEC East, driving on down to Atlanta and getting absolutely obliterated by Alabama or whomever survives the SEC West. Therefore, under Jones, the Vols will never compete for the National Championship.

How do I know the Vols will never win a championship in the Butch Jones era? The proof is in the 45-game pudding. Since 2013, Jones has increased Tennessee’s win total by two games each season (5-7 in 2013, 7-6 in 2014 and 9-4 in 2015).

That’s impressive.

What’s not impressive, is the countless examples of Jones’ inability to properly manage a game. Take the Florida game last year as a prime example. After scoring a touchdown to go ahead 26-14 in the fourth quarter, instead of doing the obvious and going for a two-point conversion, Jones opted for an extra point.

Tennessee lost 28-27.

Just two weeks prior, Jones sat on a 17-0 lead over the Oklahoma Sooners at home. Instead of sticking the hose in Oklahoma’s mouth, Jones was content with conservative offensive play-calling that put his defense on the field too often against a Sooner offense on the verge of a comeback.

Tennessee lost 31-24 in overtime.

Jones was rightfully hammered for questionable coaching decisions last season. This season, the opposite has transpired. Thanks to a string of miraculous comebacks over the first five weeks, he has become somewhat of a media darling. Part of that is due to reviving a dormant SEC program to relevance. Another part, is the extensive national exposure Team 120 has received this season (they’ve appeared on CBS at 3:30 four consecutive weeks and College GameDay three times).

On national television, the Vols trailed Appalachian State 13-3, Virginia Tech 14-0, Florida 21-0 and Georgia 17-0, but managed to win all four games. Tennessee even trailed Texas A&M on the road 28-7 and—despite seven turnovers—forced overtime. Due to the theatrics, the narrative became, “Butch Jones is pushing all the right buttons” and “Butch Jones is sprinkling pixie dust.”

Here’s a factual narrative: Appalachian State later lost to Miami by 35 points; Virginia Tech recently lost to Syracuse; Florida was without its starting quarterback; and it took a Hail Mary to defeat a Georgia team with a first-year coach and true freshman quarterback who threw for 29 yards the following week against South Carolina.

Here’s another factual narrative: Butch Jones has regressed as a head coach.

Jones can recruit three stars like it’s nobody’s business. He can deliver his classic cliché catch phrases like Clayton Kershaw can deliver a curveball.

What is apparently obvious is that he has failed at developing players.

It begins with the starters. Last season, the Vols turned the ball over 12 times in 13 games. In seven games this season, they’ve turned the ball over 17 times. The players deserve blame for being careless with the ball, but how does a team returning 17 starters from a squad that reeled off six-consecutive wins to close the 2015 campaign make so many mental errors?

If that wasn’t enough, the starters began dropping like flies… and the excuses have been flying in ever since.

Every team experiences injuries. Tennessee’s injury situation is more extreme than others, but for a team praised for its recruiting classes and depth at multiple positions, Saturday’s 49-10 loss is inexcusable. The players implemented were ill-prepared for the Crimson Tide’s onslaught.

That isn’t the players’ fault. That’s coaching. That’s poor coaching. Even senior quarterback Joshua Dobbs admitted the team should’ve prepared better. If a captain is saying that about a critical home game against the nation’s premier team, then what does that say about the coaching staff?

Another example of Jones’ questionable coaching is his inability to adjust. All season long, fans were appropriately chirping at Alvin Kamara’s lack of touches during the first five games. With Jalen Hurd out with an undisclosed injury against the Aggies, Kamara put on a show, collecting 288 total yards and three touchdowns on 26 touches.

Logic says continue feeding Kamara the ball.

But Jones doesn’t believe in logic. He doesn’t always believe in doing what’s best for the team’s success. Instead, he’s stubborn enough to believe the best plan of attack against a vicious Alabama front seven is handing the ball off to a running back who can only run straight for three yards. In total, Hurd finished Saturday’s game with 17 touches for 27 yards, while Kamara ended with 10 touches for 28 yards.

Just a hunch, but Jones seems like one of those coaches who is overly loyal to his players. There’s a great recruiting story involving Adrian Peterson, who was in high school at the time, and Mack Brown, who was the head coach of Texas at the time. The story goes that Peterson asked Brown what his chances were of playing right away for the Longhorns. To his credit, Brown was honest and said that he was sticking with Cedric Benson and that Peterson would have to wait his turn.

Peterson immediately crossed Texas off his list.

Jones is as set in his ways as Brown was. The only difference is that Brown had Vince Young and Colt McCoy as opposed to Justin Worley and Joshua Dobbs.

It’s this lack of adjusting and awareness that’ll keep Tennessee from ever reliving the glory days of the 1990s. In Tuscaloosa, Saban is forward-thinking enough to realize what works and what doesn’t. He’s experimented with starting quarterbacks in each of the past three seasons. Whether its Blake Sims, Jake Coker or Jalen Hurts, Alabama is winning games (33-3 since the beginning of 2014).

Again, Jones isn’t a bad head coach. He took a program in shambles, repaired it and built it back to some semblance of its former self. But at some point, Vol Nation and whoever the next athletic director is needs to ask themselves this: Do I want to settle?

There’s a coach down in Houston by the name of Tom Herman who has tier-one stuff. In his first year as the Cougars’ head man in charge, he guided them to a 13-1 record and a Peach Bowl victory over Florida State. This season, Houston opened with a convincing win over Oklahoma that catapulted them into the College Football Playoff picture.

Those dreams came crashing down with a shocking loss to Navy, but Herman’s qualifications are indisputable. This is a man who lured a five-star recruit to a program in the American Athletic Conference. This is a man with deep roots in Texas—the hottest of hot beds for high school football talent.

I’m not joking. If Herman expresses any interest in coaching on Rocky Top, then Tennessee would be foolish to not throw the kitchen sink at him and leave Jones biting the dust.

Odds are, Herman’s either going to LSU or Texas, but if the Vols ever want to “Feel Like ’98” again, it won’t be with Butch Jones roaming the sidelines.

Edited by Dalton King

Featured image by Matthew R. Osborne, courtesy of Tennessee Athletics