5-at-10: Friday mailbag — the Butch Jones edition (with the week’s Rushmores)

From the “Talks too much” studios, man, it’s like college football fans are passionate and stuff.

From a lot of you –

Will you do this week’s Rushmores.

Gang –

Glad to.

Thursday: Rushmore of World Series moments – Kirk Gibson’s homer in 1988; Bill Mazeroski’s Game 7 walk-off winner in 1960 (the only Game 7 walk-off homer ever); Don Larson’s perfect game; Babe Ruth calling his shot against the Cubs in 1932. You want to talk about white-guy swag? Babe Ruth had major swag.

Wednesday: Rushmore of TV families – At one time, the Huxtables would have been a no-brainer here. We’ll go The Simpsons, the Bunkers, the Sopranos and the Ewings.

Tuesday: Rushmore of Kenny Rogers songs – The Gambler, Lucielle, Coward of the County and She Believed in Me. (Although it was tough to leave Islands in the Stream out.)

Monday: Rushmore of TV founding fathers (in honor of Ed Sullivan) – This was more about TV innovators than TV fathers, but whenever we can we like to give a shoutout to Chatt-town’s Ward Cleaver. SAL-Loot. We’ll go Walter Cronkite, Roone Arledge, Lucielle Ball and Allen Funt. We know what Cronkite and Lucy did. Arledge was the brains behind Monday night football, and since the NFL dominates the TV dial, well, tip of the helmet good sir. (In sweeps week, the NFL had five of the 10 most-watched shows last week.) Funt founded and produced “Candid Camera” which by almost all accounts qualifies as the first “reality” TV show.

Great week friends.

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From Tommy D.

Love Press Row. You guys have killed it this week.

I know everyone is talking about UT Coach Jones, but my question is about Leonard Fournette.

If you were in his shoes would you turn pro or try to? Would you sit out next year?

Thanks and keep up the great work.

By the way, your bike column today was spot on.

Tommy D. –

It’s a fair question, and one that has gained a ton of momentum away from the Butch Zone that has consumed all of our attention around these parts.

We understand the system and the need for the system. We also are not a guy that says change the system for one dud.

But with more and more freshmen getting more and more time – and being better and better and more physically ready at a younger age – maybe it’s time to look at the system.

For Fournette, there’s no way the system will change in time for him, but he will have to have a serious discussion with those that he trusts.

If he returns next year, he will have a ton of insurance. And LSU can pay for that. (Side note: We found it interesting that it looks like one of the first policies to ever be paid off happened recently. We’re kind of stunned that Marcus Lattimore did not have a policy of this kind.)

That’s one path.

He could sit out, but that seems counterproductive and the rust and out-of-shape potential make this almost more costly potentially than getting hurt.

As for the future, with all the money the NFL is making, how difficult would it be to convene a draft advisory board and give it authority to speak with teams and discuss players’ value.

If you ever receive a first-round grade, you are eligible – even after your freshman season. After your second season, if you receive a first- or second-round grade you are eligible.

How hard would that be?

And no this is not changing the system for Leonard Forunette. Jadeveon Clowney would have fit into it. And there are a slew of sophomores out there right now – Nick Chubb and Derrick Henry come to mind quickly – for whom this could apply.

Plus, when we are struggling to find ways to embrace and re-institute value in the term “student-athlete” this makes even more sense.

Every student on campus, if they were able to land a million-dollar a year job, has that right to take it on the spot. Every student except athletes in the big sports.

It’s time to change the draft process, and not just in football, but it all sports.

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Now we move to the Butch Jones portion of the mailbag. How big was last week’s meltdown? Here are four Butch Jones related questions. We could have posted at least 14 more.

From Mark

Rushmore of obvious coaching mistakes that cost their team the game, their fans support, and eventually the coaches their jobs.
Hope this makes it to the mailbag or at least to the regular 5 at 10. Thanks.

Mark –
We’ll start with the most glaring one we can ever remember:
When then-Detroit coach Marty Mornhinweg won the coin toss and took the wind over the ball in overtime. The Bears kicked a game-winning field goal on the first drive and Marty was canned five games later.
We’ll go John McNamara leaving Billy Buckner on the field of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. You may remember what happened in that one. McNamara coached the Red Sox for the next year and a half, but they were not the same.

The New York Giants calling a running play on the last play of the game in 1978 that became the fumble that Herm Edwards returned for a TD in the Miracle at the Meadowlands. The Giants OC was fired 24 hours later.
And maybe the most famous – although we can’t recall if it cost him his job – was the U.S.S.R. coach not pulling his goalie in the Miracle on Ice game at the 1980 Winter Olympics.
Luckily for Butch, his magical chart is no where near the levels of these.

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From Michael

Jay love the column. As I see it the Vols have proven they are a better team than both Oklahoma and Florida or at least they outplayed them. The problem is bad decisions and we have beat on that drum for the last several weeks. Coach Jones has made a few mistakes but there is no doubt TN is a far better team. My question is if TN continues to find every way they can to give the game away at the end, who do you think TN could and should go after to replace Coach “Can’t Add”? — Thanks!
Add: Last thought I do believe our best option is to keep Butch Jones and let him continue to build the program even if he does seem to be a brick or two shy himself at times.

Michael –
One of the things that makes college football great is the passion.
That passion can frequently lead to emotional decisions that redirect programs, and those redirections can take decades to readjust. Look at the Vols.
The emotion that started with the Fulmer ousting and the failed Lane Kiffin experiment has now been six-plus years ago.
Is the team better? Yes. But is UT back? No.
We concur with your thought that Butch is the best option for UT right now. He’s recruiting at an elite level and that has to count for something.
But if the questionable in-game decisions continue and this team doesn’t learn how to win, then no matter how many 5 stars are on the roster, losses are losses.

And we have not seen this tossed out there yet, but has anyone mentioned that Butch may be Tennessee’s Mike Shula? A guy that repairs the infrastructure of a once-proud program to give way to a rock star who lifts it to new heights? We thought Dooley was Shula (Finkle is Einhorn; Einhorn is Finkle), but maybe it’s Butch.
We’ll refrain coaches lists at this juncture.
(But if Bret Bielema and the Hogs come to Knoxville and roll the Vols, man, there will be an outpouring we have not seen in a while.)
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From Stewwie

Butch Jones is taking too much heat for this loss. Calls for his firing or bringing Dooley back are a bit absurd. Why are fans not more upset at the players for not making a play on 4th and 14? Worse than letting the Gators pick up the 1st down is allowing a TD on that play. The players need to bear the responsibility for this one.

Stewwie –

Stewwie may have asked this rhetorically rather than mailbag-ally (yes, I made that word up), but we needed to include it to balance some of the rage.
First, no one is calling for Dooley back. Not even Barbara and Vince.
We also think it’s quite premature to talk about walking papers – although a loss to Arkansas will stir the mob into a frenzy.
Yes, the players do need to take the blame on the fourth-and-14. That was the least of the bad coaching decisions in truth, and one that is specifically on the coordinators. (To be fair, DC John Jancek has come the closest to saying, “You know what. I blew that one and I’ll do better.” The rest has been, “I have big shoulders.” And “As the head coach of this program, it’s my responsibility”)
That said, there were several key moments that Butch and Co. had a chance to improve the Vols’ chance to win last Saturday, and they made mistakes on almost all of them.
The two-point conversion. The timeouts to allow Florida to regroup and rethink plays. Declining penalties. Four plays in 1:21.
This is not second-guessing because a lot of us were completely puzzled in real time, as well. (Side note: In the million ways coaches hate Twitter, this is probably No. 3 behind players talking junk and inappropriate photos. And the UT Twitter timeline Saturday afternoon was liquid vitriol.)

And this is not really about the play calls in the fourth quarter, because there may be no bigger danged-if-you-do, danged-if-you-don’t scenario than calling plays up two TDs in the fourth quarter. You run it and go three-and-out, you get heat for going conservative. You throw it, and get an incompletion, you get heat for stopping the clock and not forcing them to use their timeouts.
That’s the nature of the beast, but that beast pays millions of dollars to take that heat – and after the Florida meltdown, Jones deserves it.

From Jomo
Jay- don’t you think it is really unfair to Ron Zook to have Butch Jones compared to him ? after all Zook’s record at the same time was 19-10 at the same time at Florida as Butch Jones 14-15. . . .and don’t you think Butch Jones looks just like Sargent Carter from Gomer Pyle show?

Jomo –
As for the Sgt. Carter comparison, there is some real similarities there. (Quick Rushmore of coaching dopplegangers: Butch and Sgt. Carter; Steelers Mike Tomlin and Omar Epps; UVa’s Mike London and Cee Lo Green; Mike Leach and Vince Gill.)
No, the records between Butch and Zook are not comparable, but Zook took the keys to a Florida race car that was primed and ready. Butch inherited a dumpster fire.

Suffice it to say: Saturday is a big moment for Butch and Co.