Charles Herron Jr

After five below average football seasons at the University of Tennessee, the Butch Jones era has come to an end, as announced by the University on Sunday November 12th. The firing came as no surprise due to Tennessee fans and college football fans across the country clamoring for his firing all season. Local Knoxville grocery stores had even started putting “Fire Butch” on cakes and students had begun to boycott games. Jones was able to obtain two nine win seasons during his time in Knoxville, however, this current college football season has been one of the worst the Volunteer faithful has ever seen.

It was only a matter of time before Jones was dismissed as the head coach of the Volunteers, posting an overall record in his time there of 34-27, a record of 14-24 in SEC Conference play, and going 0-6 in the Southeastern Conference this season. Jones was never able to reach strong consistency, and while he took Tennessee to bowl games and was a decent recruiter, the level of play Tennessee showed on the field was just not going to cut it for the Volunteer fans.

Tennessee Athletic Director John Currie finally pulled the trigger in firing Butch Jones after an embarrassing loss the Volunteers took at the hands of the Missouri Tigers 50-17. For a storied program like Tennessee, with so much history and tradition of winning, going 0-6 in the SEC and losing to a below average Missouri team 50-17 was just not going to cut it, so Jones was relieved of his duties shortly after. Brady Hoke, former Michigan Wolverines coach and defensive line coach for the Volunteers, was named the interim Head Coach and will coach the remainder of the season.

Multiple candidates to replace Jones have been named, such as Jon Gruden, Dan Mullen, Chip Kelly, and even Lane Kiffin. With the University of Tennessee being such a prominent school and having such strong tradition in their athletic department, the potential for the Vols to land one of these high profile coaches is strong.