The 2017 season is already 25 percent over for Tennessee football and we’re officially into the truly meaningful portion of Butch Jones’ fifth year with the Vols.
During his time in Knoxville, Jones has had multiple top 10 recruiting classes, all the national primetime coverage a program could ask for, and fan engagement is near some of its highest levels ever.
And yet, Jones cannot beat a clearly inferior Florida team.
But that’s not everything he can’t do with all of the incredible resources he’s been provided and provided for himself.
He apparently can’t give the ball to John Kelly at the half-yard-line when Kelly has been completely imposing his will on the opposing team all day.
He can’t beat a wretched South Carolina team coming off of a bye week with an SEC East title on the line.
He can’t go for two points when his team is up by 12 in The Swamp.
He can’t go for it on 4th and goal from the 1-yard-line against Oklahoma when he has one of the best power running backs in the nation in his backfield.
He can’t beat Vanderbilt more than twice out of four attempts with a wholly superior team in every matchup.
Needless to say, Saturday's disaster wasn’t Jones’ first trip around the coaching malpractice block. And this simply can’t be ignored or erroneously rationalized any longer.
Time and patience are running out for Jones and every excuse in the world won’t get him out of this bind.
Just do a quick search of the phrase “fire Butch Jones” on Twitter. It’s a blistering stream of discontent that is no longer coming from only the overly negative Big Orange fans.
Even the UT fan pages on Facebook that have become known for being relentlessly positive have taken a bit of a turn against Jones.
You can only spurn people so many times before even the most cheery among them say enough is enough. And the Vol faithful appear to be near the end of their rope.
Frankly, if you still fully believe in Butch Jones, I would encourage you to join the clergy because you have the patience of a saint.
Obviously, there are still nine games left in the season and Tennessee could still win the SEC East and beat expectations. But, if the level of coaching remains where it was against the Gators, that will not happen.
And notice that I haven’t brought up any of Jones’ assistant coaches. There’s no reason to do that because Jones hired them all and their actions fall squarely on his shoulders. Getting a new offensive or defensive coordinator won’t help at this point because Jones has already done that. Multiple times over, in fact.
This is on Butch Jones and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.