I hate to be the bearer of obvious news, but our fans are not going to give Butch Jones a couple of years to turn it around. By the start of year three he will already be on the "hot seat." Here's how his career at Tennessee is going to play out:
In year one, our fans will be all fired up at the beginning of the season, stupidly predicting upsets over Oregon and SEC championships and the like. By the end of that disappointing season, which we would have had regardless of who was coaching, "VFL" fans and crappy sports radio hosts all over the state will be screaming bloody murder.
By his second season as coach, Butch will have amassed his supporters and his haters in equal proportions. Each side will cheer when he succeeds or gloat when he fails. Ultimately, since we'll still be in rebuilding mode, we will have the type of season that the experts predict, but not the type of season that our unrealistic fans expect, and people will start turning on Butch in greater numbers.
After his first loss in year 3, a vocal minority of fans will already be calling for Butch to be fired, and that minority will only continue to grow throughout the season. The bitterness of the rabble rabble will reach such proportions that, once we're clearly eliminated from SEC East contention, the players will simply give up on the season. We'll start losing to teams that have no business even being competitive with us, and the cries for Butch Jones to be fired will finally be too loud to ignore.
And then... ta da! We'll be right back where we are now. Actually, we'll be where we were about a month ago, with more completely unrealistic coaching expectations and a few extra "SoandSo isn't a true VFL!" posts sprinkled on top.
