MONDAY MUSINGS:

WHAT CAN BUTCH DO? I made it expressly clear last week that my confidence that Butch Jones is the right guy to lead the program forward has expired. Without a new boss having the opportunity to properly evaluate the football program and Jones’ limited -if not non-existent- opportunities elsewhere however it is almost assured he will coach Team 121. That being the case my hopes are that one year from now the Vols have completed a special season and I am apologizing for doubting their leadership. What are my other options? Hope they tank so that a change is definitely made following the 2017 season? I’ve been real close to that before and refuse to waste a year doing so again. So, what can Butch do to make me feel better for the 2017 campaign in the long off season of low expectations and doused excitement? The following would help:

HIRE -AND EMPOWER- A STRENGTH & CONDITIONING COACH: One of the first red flags that too much player capitulation was occurring should have been the firing of Strength and Conditioning coach Dave Lawson and his replacement by Mike Szerszen. Widespread speculation was that the players opposed Lawson, not because of the program which he directed but because he would not allow them to play their music during sessions. What’s next, quitting the team because you can’t wear your Beats headset under your helmet during the games? I won’t go so far as to say that the S&C coach shakeup had anything to do with the rash of injuries but it almost certainly negatively affected the performances of those who played. A case in point was our season-long inability to get off of blocks. I witnessed Micah Abernathy get driven from the 5-yard line all the way to the back line of the end zone against Vandy. That is either lack of strength or lack of effort and I’ve never known Abernathy to have an issue with want-to. Butch better hire an accomplished coach for this discipline and tell the players to do EXACTLY as he says.

HIRE -AND EMPOWER- A QB COACH/OFFENSIVE/PASSING GAME COORDINATOR: Tennessee’s passing attack is rudimentary at best. Pure backyard, three completions is a first down nonsense. They also cannot continue along without a full-time, accomplished QB coach. I love Josh Dobbs but his advancements were more about strength gain and maturity than proper instruction. Jones needs to immediately address this issue by hiring a QB Coach/Passing Game Coordinator and get the heck out of the guy’s way. He would be well advised to make sure whoever fills this roll has Offensive Coordinator experience as well because he probably should be handed that entire side of the ball.

REASSIGN MIKE DEBORD: If Mike DeBord chooses to remain on the staff his role should be -at most- Offensive Line Coach and Running Game Coordinator. His (actually Butch’s) attack is fine against the dreg defenses of the conference but when facing solid defensive minds like Will Muschamp and Derek Mason the attack was slowed to a crawl. If DeBord is going to be a yes man crony rather than the confidant and conscious that Butch requires he should do it while having less influence over the rest of the offensive staff.

PUT THE OFFENSIVE LINE UNDER ONE COACH ONLY: No unit on the field requires more synchronization than the offensive line and I’ve never understood how they can reach desired levels with two voices in their heads. Having interior and exterior line coaches is a bunch of hooey. Either DeBord needs to coach the O-Line and Don Mahoney find other employment or vice-versa.

HIRE A DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR: Bob Shoop may be a proven SEC Defensive Coordinator but all he’s proven here is that he’s a bad fit. Injuries aside you cannot put a product on the field that harkens back to the horrid Sal Sunseri experiment and get an additional year. That’s a one-and-done performance.

HIRE A SECONDARY COACH: Last season our biggest disappointments were accentuated by game-changing gaffes in the secondary. This season has gotten worse rather than better. I would be hard-pressed to point out a single player on the back-end that appears to have been developed to their full potential. In an area where we seem to place annual recruiting emphasis the lack of production suggests the problem is not personnel but rather instruction and direction.

ATTEND AN IN-DEPTH PUBLIC RELATIONS TRAINING COURSE: Butch is the first coach in CFB history, whose team turned a potential Top-10, high-level bowl season into unranked and Music City bound who actually did more damage in press conferences than he did on the sideline. From -and I paraphrase- “I’m keeping a list of doubters in my back pocket" when his team was 5-0, to “be happy we’re going to be bowl eligible for the 3rd consecutive season” after the most damaging loss in at least 15 seasons at South Carolina, to “we’re 1-0 this week” after seeing Florida steal the Vols SECCG berth, to “we’re champions of life” leading into a critical game with Vandy to a 4-minute post-game charade after the debacle in Nashville, he is without question a damage-control dimwit. He needs to be forced to attend a public relations course with his job depending on successfully completing the program.

HAVE A TOP-10ish RECRUITING CLASS: It doesn’t matter if I’m through with Butch what matters is are difference-maker recruits done with him? The Vols obviously don’t have the quality depth that all of us hoped and another solid recruiting class is essential. Whether Butch Jones is here to lead them more than one year or otherwise.

WHAT WE LEARNED IN WEEK 14

NO REAL MOVEMENT: With the exception of Clemson and Ohio State swapping places at seeds 2 and 3 -which changed the bracket nada- the Final-4 remained the same as prior to the weekend action. Once Washington and Clemson won the committee probably spent more time prepping the chairman for his media obligations than they did on the matchups

8 IS ENOUGH…4 IS NOT: When you have Power-5 Conference Champ, on a nine-game winning streak that fails to make the playoff in front of a league foe they beat head-to-head you may need a few more spots in the bracket. I think the committee is probably right that Ohio State is better than Penn State but other than the old unreliable eye-test I’m far less confident they’re more deserving. Too bad it wasn’t the Buckeyes that got hosed. Other than the sheer joy that would have given me, they have the gravitas to demand change. A weakened Penn State does not.

STOOPS IS STILL BIG-GAME BOB AND MIKE GUNDY IS NOT: After a humbling start Bob Stoops got the Sooners attention to the tune of a nine-game winning streak culminating in a convincing 38-10 Bedlam Series victory over Oklahoma State that served as the Big-12 Championship Game. It was Stoops eighth Big-12 Championship in 18 years in Norman and he ran his record to 14-4 versus the in-state rival Cowboys.

GOOD LUCK TO THE OTHER THREE: Because Bama is from a different planet.

WE GET THE HUSKERS: Under the circumstances a matchup with Nebraska is as attractive as we could hope for. I certainly didn’t want to play a bland Indiana squad in the middle of an insurrection and two games versus Iowa in 24 months would have been unbearable as well.

BONUS THOUGHT: Wonder how many yards the Scott Frost/Ahman Green edition of the Cornhuskers we faced in the 1998 Orange Bowl would rush for versus this Vol defense?

MONDAY MUSING Still hate to see College Football seasons end even in the four-hour games/we suck era.

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