Tennessee coach Butch Jones yells to his team during the first half of an NCAA college football game against the Texas A&M Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016, in College Station, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)KNOXVILLE -- After beating division rivals Florida and Georgia in consecutive weeks, Tennessee was in firm control of its destiny in the SEC East.
In a two-week span the status could change.
The Volunteers and Gators now each have one conference loss after Tennessee fell in double-overtime at Texas A&M and Florida's game with LSU was postponed due to warranted concerns about the potential impact of Hurricane Matthew on the Sunshine State.
Should Florida beat Missouri at home and Tennessee drop a second straight game to No. 1 Alabama, Florida would enter its second open date in three weeks and games against Georgia and Arkansas in control of its destiny in regard to the division title.
The game has yet to be rescheduled, which has tossed a wrench into the SEC's division races.
"That's out of my control," Tennessee coach Butch Jones said Monday. "I'm more concerned right now on Alabama and preparing this football team. I have the utmost confidence in Commissioner (Greg) Sankey that he will make the right decision for the Southeastern Conference and all its members."
There's no obvious or easy solution in terms of when the game could be played.
One possibility is Nov. 19, when LSU (South Alabama) and Florida (Presbyterian) have home guarantee games against lower-level competition. The Tigers don't seem to be budging on buying out of a home game to play Florida then. LSU would face Arkansas, Florida and Texas A&M on the road in a 12-day span in that scenario.
Another thought is moving the Florida-Georgia game from Oct. 29 to Oct. 22, when the Gators and Bulldogs both have open dates, and playing LSU-Florida on Oct. 29, but the ramifications of moving the game in Jacksonville likely prohibits it.
When the postponement was announced on Thursday last week, Jones said during an appearance on a Nashville radio station that it was necessary the game needed to be played, but he was more diplomatic about the SEC's headache on Monday.
'Relief' in O'Brien situation
The scariest moment for the Vols in Saturday's loss in College Station was the injury to defensive tackle Danny O'Brien, who lay on the ground for several minutes before he was attached to a backboard, carted off the field and taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure.
Jones said he felt "relief" when the injury turned out to be not as severe as it looked in the moment.
"Those are one of the moments in time when you're on the field and you never want to be a part of," he said. "Everything is racing through your mind, but the big thing you want to do is you want to be there for him and you want to be there for his family. I thought our training staff took all the precautionary elements that needed to be done. Texas A&M officials handled it exceptionally well.
"He flew back with us. His status is day to day. As a parent, that's something that you think about. You love and you care about these kids and their safety. The family and brotherhood of our players to continue to ask, 'How's he doing? How is hes doing? How is he doing?' -- it's something you don't want to experience very often."
Off target?
Jones and the Vols were unhappy with two potential targeting calls that went against them at Texas A&M.
On Evan Berry's fumble on a kick return, Texas A&M's Cullen Gillaspia nailed Berry square in the facemask with the crown of his helmet. The impact stunned Berry, forced him to the drop the ball and knocked him out of the game for a stretch. No penalty was called.
Later freshman Nigel Warrior was flagged for targeting and ejected for a blindside block on Gillaspia. Warrior made contact with the bottom of Gillaspia's facemask as he hit him on his upper chest. With Gillaspia's head turned, though, he qualified as a defenseless player.
Jones said he was awaiting more clarification on both plays from the SEC office of officiating.
"Everything is about player safety and I'm a proponent for that and we've done a great job with that," he said, "but I do have concerns about the hit on Evan Berry. I'll wait to hear back. It's one of those things, they're going to err on the side of precaution, which is rightfully so. We're here to protect these players and protect the game.
"Nigel was just trying to play hard. Again he was trying to make a block. All I can say is we've done a good job with that. The communication has been great, but I'm awaiting final word on it so I know how to better teach our football team as well of what exactly they're looking for."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.