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Tennessee Team 121 Faces No Expectations

Does Jones have Tennessee on the right track? Nobody knows.

It’s an odd time for football fans here in Vol country. For the first time since Butch Jones took over the University of Tennessee football program, no one really knows what to expect. It’s the kind of sobering realization that comes after a solid punch in the mouth in 2016 followed by one of the best bowl wins in the school’s history.

It’s weird. But is it a good thing?

Now, when I say there are no expectations, it doesn’t mean losing is acceptable. Jones hung on to his job after a late-season 2016 collapse because he still finished a winner. The triumphant 38-24 Music City Bowl victory over Nebraska cemented it. But in an offseason where Les Miles was in the wind, Jones’ future was in doubt. Frankly, the fact that Miles didn’t take a new job and is content to sit out of coaching for a season should keep Jones up at night still.

Jones might try to coach off a card, but he was smart enough to see he got saved from the noose so some major staff changes were in order. The first was replacing offensive coordinator Mike DeBord. The official word is that DeBord wasn’t forced out, but he left to take the offensive coordinator position at Indiana awful quietly. Tennessee’s offense was consistently uninspiring and uninventive under DeBord and a big reason UT fell behind early in so many games.

Is new offensive coordinator Larry Scott an improvement? It’s hard to say. He was promoted up from tight ends coach and still has that responsibility according to Tennessee’s website.  Mike Canales takes over as quarterbacks coach after running the offense at North Texas for five seasons. Walt Wells is the new offensive line coach and the biggest addition is probably Brady Hoke, the former Michigan head coach, who will take over the defensive line. Charlton Warren replaces Willie Martinez as defensive backs coach after doing that job the last two seasons at North Carolina.

Is this a better staff than last year’s underachieving squad? It almost has to be. But the key now will be replacing most of the scoring on their offense with Josh Dobbs and Alvin Kamara both leaving school (as well as Jalen Hurd who quit the team in the middle of the season).

Tennessee’s best returning wide receiver, Jauan Jennings, was busted for pot possession during a traffic stop on Jan. 15, so that’s going to be a problem. Junior Josh Malone showed up big in the Music City Bowl and if the kid will just catch the balls thrown to him, Tennessee should be able to weather that storm as long as some other wideouts like Marquez Callaway or Brandon Johnson can step up.

Replacing Dobbs at quarterback is the biggest hurdle. There have been rumblings for the last year that Quinten Dormady was the superior quarterback anyway, though it’s doubtful he would have looked it in DeBord’s haphazard offense. Scott, on the other hand, might be able to design something a legitimate QB wants to run.

John Kelly flashed in the backfield after Hurd skipped school and Tennessee, barring injury, should be OK on offense, regardless of where the law and school comes down on Jennings, especially with four of five starting offensive linemen returning.

Tennessee needs to plug in two new defensive ends and a corner on defense, but they’ve got the athletes to do that too. So why isn’t there more buzz around this Vols program?

Because last year got us all buzzed out.

The Volunteers were primed to win the SEC East last season and blew it. They followed that up with the No. 17-ranked recruiting class in the country and the No. 7-ranked recruiting class in the SEC. All that seems to have dimmed any expectations, but when you look at the Top 20 recruiting classes, Clemson’s was ranked No. 16. And the Top 15 ahead of them were a murderer’s row. No. 17 in this class, two ahead of Oregon and five spots ahead of Washington who played in the College Football Playoff is quite a feat.

Really it all comes down to disappointment. Last season looked like it was Tennessee’s year to break through and it’s tough for a fan and media base to get that pumped again with so much uncertainty in the coaching staff and Jones future.

But the Vols can fix all of it come September just by winning, especially when they play Vanderbilt for God’s sake.

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Written by Adam Greene

Adam Greene is a writer and photographer based out of East Tennessee. His work has appeared on Cracked.com, in USA Today, the Associated Press, the Chicago Cubs Vineline Magazine, AskMen.com and many other publications.

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