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The past two seasons have been two of the best for Tennessee football in some time. Nine wins is a far cry from what the end goal is in Knoxville, but at least the arrow is pointing up. Butch Jones has done a nice job to this point, just simply restoring the level of talent at Tennessee.
His on the field performance could have been better the last two seasons. Heartbreaking losses to Florida and Alabama in 2015 along with upset wins by Vanderbilt and South Carolina in 2016 come to mind. However, his 18 wins over the past two years have him in some pretty nice company.
Other than the big 4 of Saban, Meyer, Fisher & Swinney only 8 power 5 coaches have won 9 or more games in each of the last two seasons. #CFB pic.twitter.com/YgHieQJRIr
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) June 13, 2017
This ranks Butch Jones 12th in wins of power five coaches over the past two years. That’s pretty staggering and unexpected. Jones ranks behind Saban and McElwain in wins among SEC coaches.
I think we can all agree that Butch needs to get over the hump and take the next step on the field, but you have to give him credit for sustaining at least some success here. 18 wins is nothing to scoff at when you consider the shape that the program was in after Derek Dooley left.