Wiedmer: It's put-up or shut-up time for Vols

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Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

Sixteen games into his tenure as Tennessee's head football coach, Butch Jones has enjoyed remarkable cover.

He's embraced excuses, however fair they may have been, without backlash. He's found fan patience because those who preceded him -- namely Lane Kiffin and Derek Dooley -- fostered such widespread fan discontent. He's arguably had the longest honeymoon of anyone who's ever lost nine of his first 16 games at a program that views itself as elite, no matter how preposterous that view given the Volunteers' 67-58 record and no Southeastern Conference titles in the past 10 years.

But that's all about to change Saturday. When Florida visits a Neyland Stadium supposedly ready to become a giant orange and white checkerboard, Jones will be swiftly on the clock. Excuses of culture and youth and shallow depth will no longer fly against a Gators bunch that needed three overtimes and a questionable officiating call in its own Swamp to knock off Kentucky.

Let Florida win this thing from start to finish as it usually does, or, worse yet, mount the kind of comeback it did in Dooley's final year, when the Gators turned a 20-13 deficit midway through the third quarter into a 37-20 win, and see how many Volniacs still believe in their coach's "brick-by-brick" mantra.

They might instead start throwing bricks, though they would hopefully be of the foam variety.

Point is, this is the game that all those sayings and mantras that even Jones's own players have sometimes labeled "corny" or "cheesy" become viewed by the Big Orange Nation as either hope they can continue to believe in ... or hype they can belittle.

This is put-up or shut-up time. Period.

Maybe that's not fair. At least it wouldn't be if the Gators of today were the Gators of old, both highly ranked and immensely talented, the envy of almost every program in college football outside of Tuscaloosa, Ala.

But this Florida team gave up 645 total offensive yards in a 42-21 loss at Alabama despite the Crimson Tide coughing up the bal four times. This Florida team ranks 110th of 125 FBS programs in average passing yards allowed, surrendering an average of 409 aerial yards to its two SEC opponents to date: the Kittycats and the Tide.

And what does Tennessee do best? Throw it. All over the field.

Given that, plus the not-so-little fact that UT's Justin Worley just might be the SEC East's best quarterback, it's almost a shock that the betting line has the Vols favored by only 2.5 points.

If Florida hadn't won the last nine in a row over Tennessee by an average score of 15.3 points, that spread would probably be at least 10 points higher.

And that's what it should be. You play as the Vols did at Oklahoma and Georgia and you should be favored at home by double figures against fragile Florida and Will Muschamp, its toothless pit bull of a coach.

Tennessee has better wideouts, a better quarterback, a better defense -- especially in the secondary -- and a home-field advantage that should rival the crowds that did so much to do in the Gators in both 1998 and 2004, UT's only home wins over UF in more than 20 years.

Yet that's also what makes this game so important for Jones. Everyone from Las Vegas oddsmakers to UT's fans to Florida's fans probably expects the Vols to vanquish the Gators.

But there's nothing worse than expectations unmet. Just ask any of the four coaches -- including Mike Price, who never actually coached a game -- who directed Alabama during the 10 years between Gene Stallings retiring and Nick Saban arriving. Four coaches. Ten years. Six-point-seven wins a season.

Tennessee's average number of wins over its last 10 volatile seasons? Try 6.7 a year.

If you don't think Jones is aware of the importance of this game, merely consider his thoughts on the fumble in the end zone against Georgia that sealed the Vols' fate last Saturday. On Wedneday's SEC news conference he sort of, kind of, vaguely threw offensive lineman Marcus Jackson under the bus, saying, "It's just like in the fumble in the end zone. If we would have said to Marcus Jackson: 'Hey, this block in the three technique is going to be the most critical block you make all year. You've got to make this block.' Maybe the approach, maybe the footwork, maybe the technique, maybe the fundamentals would've been a little bit different."

But it's what Jones said later that matters most to the coach and his program growing forward.

"There has been a culture change," he said. "But again, we have to start winning some football games."

Beginning Saturday against the Gators.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.

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