Rocky Topics: Is Butch Jones on the hot seat?

On this week’s installment of Rocky Topics, Seth Raborn and David Bradford debate if Tennessee head coach Butch Jones is on the hot seat.

Bradford: If you were to take a thermometer and place on Jones’ seat, it would show the temperature increasing. However, it isn’t scorching hot just yet. It’s nice and toasty. That isn’t necessarily a good thing for Jones after a stunning loss to South Carolina. However, what’s important to note is that no one really knows how good this Tennessee team could have been if all its players had been healthy. Just take a gander at the preseason depth chart and the depth chart heading into the Alabama game. The two look like completely different teams. Is Jones a perfect head coach? Absolutely not. He has flaws that he must address, but it’s unfair to place a coach on the hot seat when there is still a chance to win the SEC East despite a staggering amount of devastating injuries.

Raborn: Jones is coming off of an inexcusable loss to South Carolina after having two weeks of preparation. No matter how injury ridden the Vols have been this season, that loss puts Jones on the hot seat. The most troubling fact for Jones is that he has yet to win a game that he was not supposed to win — games against teams like Alabama, Oklahoma or Texas A&M. Going into this season, expectations were exceedingly high for this Tennessee team, and going into homecoming weekend with a 5-3 record is not where most fans saw the season at through eight games. Most fans would echo that it’s disappointing that a Tennessee team with so much talent on the roster — regardless of injuries — have three losses at this point in the season.

Bradford: Although the losses to Oklahoma and Texas A&M were devastating losses, both of those games went into overtime. Do the Derek Dooley Vols get into overtime against those teams? Probably not. Also, there is no shame in losing to Alabama. Everybody loses to ‘Bama. It’s why the Crimson Tide have won four of the last seven championships and are on pace to grab their fifth. You mention the record of 5-3, but consider that the Vols were 4-4 after eight games last season. Although it’s not a given that they’ll win out, Tennessee will be favored in each of its last four games. If the Vols finish the regular season at 9-3 despite a plethora of injuries in the nation’s toughest conference (not to mention wins over their two biggest rivals in Florida and Georgia), that’s growth and improvement. Jones is currently going through what Charlie Strong is going through. Strong doesn’t have the greatest overall record at Texas, but he’s taken a program left in shambles and improved it every season. Jones should only be on the hot seat if the team finishes the season 6-6. If they win out and get 10 wins after a bowl game, then it shows that the orange and white are heading in the right direction.

Raborn: That is correct, at this point there is no guarantee that the Vols will win all four of these games. It is not fair to say that the last four games are easy wins, especially considering that Kentucky beat the South Carolina team that Jones and the Vols fell to last week. Wins over Florida and Georgia may be improvements from last year, but were those games not ones that Tennessee was supposed to win going into this season? The expectations were clear for the Vols going into the season: they were expected to win the SEC East and possibly have a chance at the playoff. Butch Jones has all but failed to deliver what the fans and the football team were expecting in that regard. Those wins against Florida and Georgia will be almost pointless if the Vols lose more than one game in this back stretch, completely eliminating Tennessee’s chances to be in Atlanta at the end of the season. Jones’ seat is hot and there is a real chance that another loss in these last four games will put him in a bad position.

Edited by Nathan Odom

Featured image by Sumner Gilliam