KNOXVILLE – There appears to be enough football left on Tennessee’s schedule for fifth-year coach Butch Jones to have a chance, however slim, to save his job.
But if a coaching search is coming in Knoxville, it will arrive with the university’s athletic department on firmer footing than it was five years ago when Derek Dooley was fired with a game remaining in the 2012 season.
Tennessee owed Dooley a guaranteed $5 million at a time when the athletic department had just posted a $4 million deficit for the 2011-12 fiscal year. Tennessee also owed Dooley’s offensive coordinator, Jim Chaney, a guaranteed $600,000 and was responsible for paying any difference in salary for the rest of the assistants in their next jobs.
At that time, the university had been receiving $6 million a year from the athletic department. Jimmy Cheek, the school’s chancellor at the time, announced two days after Dooley’s firing that the annual $6 million contribution would be reinvested in the athletic department over the next three years, presumably to help pay Dooley’s buyout.
Tennessee head coach Butch Jones prepares to lead his players onto the field against South Carolina at Neyland Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 14, in Knoxville, Tenn.Jones succeeded Dooley and is 33-24 at Tennessee. He has led the Vols to three straight bowl wins but has yet to win the SEC East.