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Morning folks. Over the last couple of days reactions to Saturday’s abysmal loss to Vanderbilt and Butch Jones’ tenure in general have continued to filter down, and they’re actually a bit grimmer than we’d have guessed. Andy Staples led off his weekly college football phonebook with a less-than-optimistic look at Jones, while Campus Insiders puts him at #4 in their hot seat rankings, behind only a guy whose AD has ghosted on him, a screaming man who went 4-8 and is already looking for a new job, and Jim Grobe.
Dave Hooker says it’s “time to officially come to the realization that Butch Jones almost assuredly can’t take Tennessee to a championship level,” and even the generally Panglossian Wes Rucker works his way through a thousand or so words before limply concluding that he can’t say this isn’t 2011 Kentucky all over again, exactly.
Kippy Brown told a (presumably horrified) room at the Knoxville Quarterback Club yesterday he thinks Lane Kiffin would be a great fit to replace Butch. Even that George Plimpton of our times, John Adams, is making gag columns about Butch’s pressers. Chris Fowler is snarking, for heaven’s sake:
remember when Butch Jones left @cubuffs at the altar? And they "settled" for Mike MacIntyre? I do. Interesting how things turn out.
— Chris Fowler (@cbfowler) November 27, 2016
Less than two months ago Tennessee stood at 5-0, poised for the best season in a decade. Life comes at you fast, man.
One thing that should probably be central to any hiring decisions- while we have the right to demand a competitive team, outside of some Auburn ‘13 type shenanigans, right now this is Saban’s world and we’re all just living in it:
ICYMI: #Alabama set to host at least 47 recruits ranked four-stars or higher this weekend including 10 five-stars https://t.co/ohaCT6439n pic.twitter.com/w0VTDay7XK
— Andrew Bone (@AndrewJBone) November 25, 2016
Lady Vols
Virginia Tech had its revenge Sunday with an 11-0 run in the third quarter to shock the #16 Lady Vols 67-63, Tennessee’s second consecutive loss to an unranked opponent. Mercedes Russell led the scoring with 17 points and 14 rebounds, but the Lady Vols’ 21 turnovers was, uh, not great. Holly Warlick was unsurprisingly not thrilled:
"You know what, quite frankly we don't deserve to be ranked," Warlick said. "We don't deserve to be ranked. [...] All I care about right now is this team and how we can get better. And we're not very good right now."
If It’s Tuesday, It’s POSSUMNEWS
Late on this, but RIP Vine. We hardly knew ye.